Spotted bolo mouse
species of mammal
The spotted bolo mouse or Ecuadorian akodont (Necromys punctulatus) is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is known from Ecuador and may also occur in Colombia. Little is known of its status and range.
Taxonomy
Necromys punctulatus is known from a single specimen in the Natural History Museum, London which was originally collected by the British zoologist Louis Fraser in Ecuador between 1857 and 1859. For a long time this was thought to be a subspecies of the short-tailed cane mouse (Zygodontomys brevicauda) but in 1991, the American zoologist Robert S. Voss examined the type specimen and came to the conclusion that it had many features in common with the hairy-tailed bolo mouse (Necromys lasiurus), then classified as Bolomys lasiurus, and placed it in the same genus, as Bolomys punctata. Both have since been transferred to the new genus Necromys.
Description
The spotted bolo mouse is a medium-sized member of its genus, growing to a total length of 200 mm (8 in) including a tail of about 70 mm (2.8 in). The fur is short and harsh. The colour of the upper parts is mainly blackish, some hairs being streaked with grey and yellow, resulting in the cheeks, and the sides of the neck and body being somewhat olive. The underparts are whitish, the ears are brown and well-covered with hair, and the tail is two-coloured, dark above and pale beneath.
“Spotted bolo mouse” enters the record as species of mammal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Spotted, bolo and mouse can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Spotted bolo mouse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.