Mus villosissimus Waite, 1898a

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 367

Mus villosissimus Waite, 1898a nomen novum

Proc. R. Soc. Vic. n.s. 10: 125. (July 1898).

Common name. Long-haired Rat.

Current name. Rattus villosissimus ( Waite, 1898a) , following Jackson & Groves (2015).

Holotype. PA.62, the holotype of Mus longipilis Gould, 1854 , see previous account of that taxon.

Comments. Waite proposed villosissimus as a new replacement name for Mus longipilis Gould, 1854 , see account for Mus longipilis . Waite (1898a) provided an extended description of Mus longipilis , using a male and female obtained after the Horn Expedition by Spencer’s collectors. Waite provided skull and external measurements for both specimens (which have no type status), which he designated as A (male) and B (female). One of these specimens could be M.1305, an unsexed skin mount that appears to have had the skull removed (but skull not subsequently found); entered in the M Register as “Central Australia ”, presented by Baldwin Spencer, and registered in July 1898, originally as Mus villosissimus . Although external measurements of M.1305 appear to be closest to Waite’s female, specimen B, Taylor & Horner (1973) concluded that it was his specimen A, based on skull measurements of the other specimen which they believed to be SAM M.2410.