Comments: | Oryzomyini. A broad and diverse character base indelibly and uniformly pictures the phyletic heritage of Nectomys as oryzomyine (Baker et al., 1983; Dickerman and Yates, 1995; Hershkovitz, 1944, 1960; Hooper and Musser, 1964a; Myers et al., 1995; Patton and da Silva, 1995; Smith and Patton, 1999; Steppan, 1995; Voss and Carleton, 1993). Hershkovitz (1944) included Sigmodontomys as a subgenus; Gardner and Patton (1976) urged removal of Sigmodontomys to Oryzomys, and Musser and Carleton (1993) provisionally elevated it to genus. Regional studies are beginning to uncover the species diversity masked by Hershkovitz’s (1944) concept of a single, pan-Amazonian species, N. squamipes (e.g., Andrades-Miranda et al., 2001b; Gómez-LaVerde et al., 1999; Patton et al., 2000; Voss et al., 2001). Integration of these regional perspectives nevertheless warrants continued alpha-level revisionary investigation to voucher geographic ranges and to properly associate junior synonyms. |