Rattus colletti Thomas 1904

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1468

Rattus colletti Thomas 1904

Rattus colletti Thomas 1904 , Novit. Zool., 11: 599.

Type Locality: Australia, Northern Territory, South Alligator River (see Mahoney and Richardson, 1988).

Vernacular Names: Australian Dusky Rat.

Distribution: Australia; known only from the coastal floodplains of the Northern Territory, the most restricted range of all the native Australian Rattus ( Watts and Aslin, 1981; Williams, 1995).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Rattus fuscipes species group. Arranged as a subspecies of R. sordidus by Taylor and Horner (1973), but subsequently treated as a separate species ( Mahoney and Richardson, 1988; Watts and Aslin, 1981; Williams, 1995). Although diploid counts are very different, Rattus colletti (2n = 42) is genetically very close to R. villosissimus (2n = 50); the two hybridize in the laboratory, but the offspring exhibit severely reduced fertility ( Baverstock et al., 1983 a, 1986). An undescribed species related to R. colletti and R. villosissimus is known from a small area in C Queensland (Aplin, in litt., 2004). Fertile hybrids have also been obtained between laboratory crosses of R. colletti and R. tunneyi ( Baverstock et al., 1983 a) .