Nectomys apicalis Peters 1860

Nectomys apicalis Peters 1860, Abh. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1860: 152.

Type Locality: Ecuador, Napo Prov., Tena, 512 m (as restricted by Hershkovitz, 1944:53).

Vernacular Names: Western Amazonian Nectomys.

Synonyms: Nectomys fulvinus Thomas 1897; Nectomys garleppii Thomas 1899; Nectomys montanus Hershkovitz 1944; Nectomys napensis Hershkovitz 1944; Nectomys saturatus Thomas 1897; Nectomys vallensis Hershkovitz 1944 .

Distribution: Westernmost Brazil (Acre and Amazonas), and contiguous lowlands and Andean foothills of C and E Ecuador, E Perú, and WC Bolivia (see Anderson, 1997:Fig. 685; Patton et al., 2000:Fig. 78); distributional limits uncertain.

Discussion: Argued by Patton et al. (2000) as the oldest name for those water rat populations in western Amazonia with a 2n = 38-42 karyotype, including garleppii, which Reig (in Honacki et al., 1982) and Barros et al. (1992) recognized as a species. More than a single species is likely represented among the listed synonyms, whether they belong to one of the other species recognized here or to some other species yet to be determined.