''Nephelomys childi'' is a species of

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 ...

in the genus ''

Nephelomys ''Nephelomys'' is a genus of South American oryzomyine rodents found in the Andes from Bolivia to Venezuela, with a westward extension into the mountains of Costa Rica. Its generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''nephelê'' "mist", ...

'' of 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 ...

.Weksler et al., 2006, p. 18 The type locality is at

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, Colombia, and the type locality of its

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

, ''oconnelli'', is at a place known as Buenavista, about southeast of Bogotá.Allen, 1913, p. 597 It was named after Mr. George D. Child, who assisted in obtaining the

type series In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

.Thomas, 1895, p. 59 The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

is a medium-sized animal with a long tail. The fur on the back is relatively long, at . The upperparts are generally grey–brown in color, with a darker patch at the middle of the back. There is a clear separation in color between the upperparts and the underparts, which have light grey hairs with white tips. The upper surface of the long feet is whitish. The large ears are black and covered with fine hairs. The tail is brown above and near-white below. The head and body length is , the tail length is , the hindfoot length is , and the ear length is . Both ''N. childi'' and its synonym ''oconnelli'' were originally described as species of ''

Oryzomys ''Oryzomys'' is a genus of semiaquatic rodents in the tribe Oryzomyini living in southern North America and far northern South America. It includes eight species, two of which—the marsh rice rat (''O. palustris'') of the United States and ...

'', ''Oryzomys childi'' and ''Oryzomys o'connelli''. They were compared, respectively, to ''O. meridensis'' (currently ''

Nephelomys meridensis ''Nephelomys meridensis'', also known as the Mérida oryzomys,Musser and Carleton, 2005, p. 1151 is a species of rodent in the genus ''Nephelomys'' of family Cricetidae.Weksler et al., 2006, p. 18 It is found in cloud forest in the Sierra Nevada ...

'') and ''O. pectoralis'' (currently '' Nephelomys pectoralis''). Later they were submerged in a broadly defined ''Oryzomys albigularis'' (currently ''

Nephelomys albigularis ''Nephelomys albigularis'', also known as the white-throated oryzomys or Tomes's rice rat, is a species of rodent in the genus '' Nephelomys'' of family Cricetidae. Described in 1860, it was the first ''Nephelomys'' species to be discovered. It w ...

''),Musser and Carleton, 2005, p. 1145 but when the genus ''

'' was extracted from ''Oryzomys'' in 2006, ''N. childi'' was reinstated as a separate species.

References

Literature cited

*Allen, J.A. 1913. New South American Muridae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 32:597–604. *Musser, G.G. and Carleton, M.D. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894–1531 in Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. 3rd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp. *Thomas, O. 1895. On small mammals from Nicaragua and Bogota. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (6)16:55–60. * {{Taxonbar, from=Q6994988 Nephelomys Mammals described in 1895 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas