The hairy-tailed bolo mouse or hairy-tailed akodont (''Necromys lasiurus'') is a

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of the family

Cricetidae The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At almost 608 species, it is the second-largest family of mammals, and has m ...

. It is found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Description

The hairy-tailed bolo mouse grows to a head-and-body length between , with a tail length of . The ears are small and rounded, and have a sparse covering of hair. The body fur is variable in colour, but usually the back is olive grey to dark brown, the flanks are paler and washed with ochre, and the underparts are white or pale grey. The demarcation line between upper parts and underparts is ill-defined. The tail is bicolor, dark above and pale below, and clad in short, fairly dense fur, and the feet are brown on top with tufts of white hair between the digits, which have strong nails.

Distribution and habitat

The hairy-tailed bolo mouse is native to southern South America. Its range extends from eastern and central Brazil as far west as

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, ...

, through eastern Paraguay to northeastern Argentina. The exact boundaries are not well known, with various isolated outlying areas and with populations west of the

Paraguay River The Paraguay River (Río Paraguay in Spanish, Rio Paraguai in Portuguese, Ysyry Paraguái in Guarani) is a major river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. It flows about from its headwaters in ...

overlapping the range of the

Paraguayan bolo mouse The Paraguayan bolo mouse or Paraguayan akodont (''Necromys lenguarum'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. According to the IUCN, it is present in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru, and possibly also in Argentina and Brazil. It is foun ...

(''N. lenguarum''). Its typical habitat is grassland, the verges of cultivated fields and areas of secondary woodland.

Ecology

The hairy-tailed bolo mouse is mainly diurnal, with some activity at dusk and at night, particularly in the dry season. Its diet varies with the time of year, but mainly consists of seeds and green plant material, and sometimes includes small

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. The breeding season is mostly in the spring and summer, and litter sizes average about five young. This mouse is a reservoir for certain

hantavirus ''Orthohantavirus'' is a genus of single-stranded, enveloped, negative-sense RNA viruses in the family ''Hantaviridae'' within the order ''Bunyavirales''. Members of this genus may be called orthohantaviruses or simply hantaviruses. Orthohantav ...

es, including the Araraquara strain from Brazil, which can cause disease in humans. It is a host of the

Acanthocephalan Acanthocephala (Greek , ', thorn + , ', head) is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to p ...

intestinal parasite ''

Moniliformis necromysi Moniliformidae is a family of parasitic spiny-headed (or thorny-headed) worms. It is the only family in the Moniliformida order and contains three genera: ''Australiformis'' containing a single species, ''Moniliformis'' containing eighteen spec ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q308452 Necromys Rodents of South America Mammals of Argentina Mammals of Bolivia Mammals of Brazil Mammals of Paraguay Mammals described in 1841