Nectomys squamipes (Brants, 1827)

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 709

Nectomys squamipes (Brants, 1827) . Het Geslacht der Muizen, p. 138.

TYPE LOCALITY: Brazil, Säo Paulo, Säo Sebastiao (as restricted by Hershkovitz, 1944:32) .

DISTRIBUTION: Basin of the Rios Magdalena and Cauca, NC Colombia; east of the Andes broadly distributed from Guianas, Venezuela, and E Colombia southwards to NE Argentina, Uruguay, and SE Brazil; sea level to 2000 m.

SYNONYMS: amazonicus , apicalis , aquaticus , brasiliensis , cephalotes, fulvinus, garleppii, grandis , magdalenae , mattensis, melanius , montanus , napensis, olivaceus , pollens , rattus , robustus , vallensis.

COMMENTS: Hershkovitz (1944) arrayed most nominal taxa of water rats as subspecies of N. squamipes , a view maintained by Cabrera (1961). Gardner and Patton (1976) intimated the mixed composition of squamipes ; Reig (in Honacki et al., 1982; 1986) has offered enumerations of valid species and probable synonymies. Fullscale generic revision warranted. See Ernest (1986, Mammalian Species, 265).