The White-bellied Luzon tree rat (''Carpomys phaeurus'') is a species of

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

in the family

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are either the largest or second-largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 870 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. ...

. It is found only in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, in the northern

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

island. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

is subtropical or tropical dry

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s, in the Cordillera Central mountains. It has been found at elevations between to , but likely occurs down to .

Taxonomy

''Carpomys phaeurus'' was first described by

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for ...

in 1895, from specimens collected by local people and brought to Britain by John Whitehead. Whitehead described it as "somewhat rare" in the area where it was collected. It is known from the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

and one other specimen collected in 1895, and two specimens collected in 1946 and 2003. It is one of two living species in the genus ''

Carpomys ''Carpomys'' is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae. It contains two extant species, and one extinct species: * '' Carpomys melanurus'' * '' Carpomys phaeurus'' *'' Carpomys dakal'' It was first described by Oldfield Thomas Michael Roger ...

.''

Description

''C. phaeurus'' has thick fur, brownish-yellow in color, with a dull white belly and a dark brown short-furred tail. It has a "mask" of dark fur around the eyes. Adults are to long, of which the tail is to . The adult weight is approximately . It can be distinguished from the other species of the genus, '' C. melanurus'' by its smaller size, the color of the tail, and its smaller teeth. The white-bellied Luzon tree rat has a generational length of two years. They are likely nocturnal, arboreal, and seed-eating, but there is very limited data about the species. The specimens caught in 1895 were collected from burrows under the roots of trees. As the high-elevation habitat of the species faces minimal threats, the species is listed as Least Concern by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

. The population at the type locality, Mount Data, may be extinct, as recent surveys have failed to find any specimens.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q304672 Rats of Asia Carpomys Endemic fauna of the Philippines Fauna of Luzon Rodents of the Philippines Mammals described in 1895 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxonomy articles created by Polbot