Thaptomys Thomas 1916

Thaptomys Thomas 1916, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 18: 339.

Type Species: Hesperomys subterraneus Hensel 1873

Species and subspecies: 1 species:

Species Thaptomys nigrita (Lichtenstein 1829)

Discussion: Akodontini. Following its description as an akodontine genus, the taxon has been usually retained as a subgenus of Akodon (Cabrera, 1961; Ellerman, 1941; Massoia, 1963 a) or even a full synonym of the nominate subgenus (Reig, 1987). Recently, Hershkovitz (1990 a, 1998) has reasserted the singular morphological traits of the taxon as "definitely non Akodon " and concurred with Thomas’ (1916 c) generic segregation. Cladistic interpretations of cytochrome b sequences portray nigrita as genetically highly divergent from Akodon proper, either as sister group to that genus (Smith and Patton, 1999), to Necromys (D’Elía et al., 2003), or to the clade Necromys Thalpomys (D’Elía, 2003).