408.

Elegant Rice Rat

Euryoryzomys nitidus

French: Oryzomys élégant / German: Elegante Reisratte / Spanish: Rata arrocera elegante

Other common names: Elegant Euryoryzomys

Taxonomy. Hesperomys laticeps, var. nitidus Thomas, 1884, “Junin and Amable Maria.”

Clarified by A. L. Gardner and J. L. Patton in 1976 as “Amable Maria ... small community in the Tulumayo Valley about 10 kilometers south of San Ramon,” Junin, Peru. This species is monotypic.

Distribution. SW Amazon Basin, including E & SE Peru, SW Brazil, and N & E Bolivia.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 108-163 mm, tail 113-160 mm. No specific data are available for body weight. The Elegant Rice Rat is medium-sized. Dorsal fur is short and close, bright tawny or tawny brown, with ocherous highlights along flanks; underparts are whitish gray; and tail is unicolored. Skull is elongated, with narrow interorbital region; presence of alisphenoid strut is variable; incisive foramina is long and narrow, and bony palate is short. Paraflexus and medial fossettes are present and labially positioned; there is deep entoflexid in M,, with moderately and short hypoflexid and fossetid. Chromosomal complement is 2n = 80, FN = 86.

Habitat. Humid tropical evergreen forests, mature and secondary deciduous forests, gallery forests, floodplain forest, dry forests, grasslands, and areas near anthropogenic regions at elevations of 50-2000 m.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. Sexually active male Elegant Rice Rats and pregnant females were captured in February.

Activity patterns. Trapping data suggests that the Elegant Rice Rat is nocturnal and terrestrial.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red Lust.

Bibliography. Emmons & Patton (2005), Gardner & Patton (1976), Musser & Carleton (2005), Musser, Carleton et al. (1998), Patton et al. (2000), Percequillo (2015d), Weksler & Bonvicino (2016a).