Apomys

<i>Apomys</i>

Apomys

Genus of rodents


Apomys, commonly known as earthworm mice, is a genus of rodent endemic to the Philippines. Mice belonging to this genus are generally called Philippine forest mice and can be found on most islands of the Philippines except in Palawan, the Sulu Archipelago, and the Batanes and Babuyan group of islands.

Apomys mice weigh from 18g to 128g. The tail is longer or nearly equal the length of the head and body. The soft and thick fur of these mice is darker on the back while the front fur is paler, often nearly white with a moderate orange yellow wash. The hind feet are moderately long and narrow, have six plantar pads, and have digits 2–4 notably longer than digit 5 and the hallux. All species have two pairs of inguinal mammae.[1]

Species

Nineteen species are known in two subgenera:[2][3][1][4]

Several species also awaits formal description.

The species generally inhabit narrow ecological niches with small endemic ranges.

See also


References

  1. Heaney, L; Balete D; Rickart E; Alviola P; Duya M; Duya M; Veluz M; VandeVrede L; Steppan S (2011). "Seven New Species and a New Subgenus of Forest Mice (Rodentia: Muridae: Apomys) from Luzon Island". Fieldiana Life and Earth Sciences. doi:10.3158/2158-5520-2.1.1. S2CID 86544405.
  2. Musser, G.G.; Carleton, M.D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  3. Heaney, L.R.; Balete, D.S.; Veluz, M.J.; Steppan, S.J.; Esseltyn, J.A.; Pfeiffer, A.W.; Rickart, E.A. (2014). "Two new species of Philippine forest mice (Apomys, Muridae, Rodentia) from Lubang and Luzon Islands, with a redescription of Apomys sacobianus Johnson, 1962". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 126 (4): 395–413. doi:10.2988/0006-324X-126.4.395. S2CID 49347286.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Apomys, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.