Handleyomys Voss, Gómez-Laverde, and Pacheco 2002

Handleyomys Voss, Gómez-Laverde, and Pacheco 2002, Am. Mus . Novit., 3373: 5.

Type Species: Aepeomys fuscatus J. A. Allen 1912

Species and subspecies: 2 species:

Species Handleyomys fuscatus (J. A. Allen 1912)

Species Handleyomys intectus (Thomas 1921)

Discussion: Oryzomyini . The two species, fuscatus and intectus, composing this new genus had been recognized as problematic members within their genera of original description, Aepeomys and Oryzomys respectively (e.g., Gardner and Patton, 1976; Musser and Carleton, 1993; Ochoa et al., 2001). Discrimination from those genera, morphological description, distribution, and ecological information supplied by Voss et al. (2002). Females lack pectoral mammae as common to most oryzomyine species (see Voss and Carleton, 1993), but Handleyomys possesses other synapomorphies that cladistically affiliate it with that tribe, a relationship supported by molecular evaluation (Weksler, 2003). Nearest relatives remain uncertain (Voss et al., 2002); affiliated with certain Middle American Oryzomys according to nuclear DNA sequence data (Weksler, 2003).