Eliurus Milne Edwards 1885

Eliurus Milne Edwards 1885, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool. Paleontol. (Paris), 20: Art. 1 bis.

Type Species: Eliurus myoxinus Milne-Edwards 1885

Species and subspecies: 10 species:

Species Eliurus antsingy Carleton, Goodman, and Rakotondravony 2001

Species Eliurus ellermani Carleton 1994

Species Eliurus grandidieri Carleton and Goodman 1998

Species Eliurus majori Thomas 1895

Species Eliurus minor Major 1896

Species Eliurus myoxinus Milne-Edwards 1885

Species Eliurus penicillatus Thomas 1908

Species Eliurus petteri Carleton 1994

Species Eliurus tanala Major 1896

Species Eliurus webbi Ellerman 1949

Discussion: Genus arrayed as a monotypic tribe within Murinae by Ellerman (1941), an affinity confuted by molecular data (Dubois et al., 1996; Jansa et al., 1999). Ellerman (1949) set the precedent for recognizing only two species, the large polytypic E. myoxinus and the small monotypic E. minor, an arrangement later followed by F. Petter (1972 c, 1975 a) and others (Corbet and Hill, 1991; Honacki et al., 1982). Revised by Carleton (1994), who recognized 8 species and summarized their morphological identification and distributions; interspecific relationships based on cladistic interpretation of cytochrome b sequences studied by Jansa et al. (1999). Review of specific taxonomy and distributions, along with key to identification, provided by Carleton (2003).