Melomys hadrourus Winter, 1984

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 360

Melomys hadrourus Winter, 1984

Mem. Qld. Mus. 21(2): 519, figs 2–4, pl. 1–3, tables 1–2 (cover date March 1984).

Common name. Pygmy White-tailed Rat.

Current name. Uromys hadrourus ( Winter, 1984) , following Musser & Carleton (2005).

Paratypes. (2, by original designation). M. 12520 , female adult, skull, study skin, body in alc., collected by H. Posamentier, between 3–13 November 1975, from south face of Thornton Peak at alt. of 640 m (16°10'30"S 145°21'45"E), North Qld. M. 12521 , male subadult, skull, body in alc., collected by H. Posamentier, 13 November 1975, from south face of Thornton Peak at alt. of 1020 m (16°10'15"S 145°22'00"E), North-eastern Qld, Australia .

Comments. Five specimens in the type series, holotype and other paratypes are in QM. Although this species was described by Winter (1984), it is evident that the name was inadvertently published in his earlier account ( Winter, 1983) of “ Melomys sp. ” and the caption to his figure states that the species “had not been formally described when this book went to press and still lacked a scientific name”. Subsequent authors have variously accepted the publication date as 1983 (e.g., McAllan & Bruce, 1989; Jackson & Groves, 2015) or 1984 (e.g., Mahoney & Richardson, 1988; Musser & Carleton, 2005). We accept the publication date as 1984 on the grounds that the description was in two parts, with the initial incomplete description that referred to Winter’s paper in press.