Heteropsomyinae Anthony, 1917

Charles A. Woods, 1993, Order Rodentia - Suborder Hystricognathi, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 771-806 : 799

Subfamily Heteropsomyinae Anthony, 1917 . Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 37(4):189.

COMMENTS: Named by Anthony to reflect perceived relationship between Heteropsomys and Dasyprocta . Expanded by Kraglievich (1965) and Patterson and Pascual (1968b) to include Proechimys and associate genera. Modified by Woods (1982:386) when West Indian Spiny Rats classified with capromyids. West Indian Spiny Rats are transitional in characters between Echimyidae and Capromyidae , and here are placed in their own subfamily within the Echimyidae until the two families are revised. Varona (1974:73) placed all West Indian Spiny Rats in the genus Heteropsomys . However, there are clear differences between the forms on each island, so the original generic names are maintained here, except that Homopsomys is combined with Heteropsomys ( Woods, 1989a, b).