Necromys lactens Thomas 1918

Necromys lactens Thomas 1918, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 1: 188.

Type Locality: Argentina, Jujuy Prov., León, about 1500 m.

Vernacular Names: White-chinned Akodont.

Synonyms: Necromys negrito (Thomas 1926); Necromys orbus (Thomas 1919) .

Distribution: E Andean highlands, about 2100-4000 m, of SC Bolivia (see Anderson and Olds, 1989) and NW Argentina (Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca, and Tucumán Provs.; see Ortiz et al., 2000 a).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as Bolomys lactens .

Discussion: Galliari and Pardiñas (1995) reidentified leucolimnaeus, previously considered a subspecies of lactens (Cabrera, 1961; Gyldenstolpe, 1932), as a species of Akodon and questioned (2000:226) the synonymy of negrito and orbus, as attributed by Cabrera (1961), as "dubious." Capllonch et al. (1997) had resurrected N. orbus based on a single specimen from Tucumán Prov., but Pardiñas and Galliari (1998 b) considered the action to be inadequately documented.