identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
823EDF2181B25A4CB2232221274038B5.text	823EDF2181B25A4CB2232221274038B5.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Mus dumbara Boyagoda & Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi 2026	<div><p>Mus dumbara sp. nov.</p><p>Fig. 5 A</p><p>Type locality.</p><p>Sri Lanka, Puwakpittiya, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=80.736336&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=7.5788336" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 80.736336/lat 7.5788336)">Matale district</a>, 07°34.73'N, 80°44.18'E, forest edge near a paddy field, 11 March 2004.</p><p>Type material.</p><p>Holotype. • 2026.01.01 NH (female, 74.3 mm HBL), skin preserved; skull removed and preserved separately. Collected by M. M. Bahir and M. Meegaskumbura on 11 March 2004, at Puwakpittiya, <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=80.736336&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=7.5788336" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 80.736336/lat 7.5788336)">Matale district</a> (07°34.73'N, 80°44.18'E, elevation 370 m) . Paratype. • 2026.01.02 NH (female, 77.8 mm HBL), collected by M. Meegaskumbura, M. M. Bahir and S. H. Boyagoda on 17 March 2004, other collection data same as holotype . Specimen preserved in alcohol; skull removed and preserved separately.</p><p>Common name.</p><p>Since the two specimens were collected from the Puwakpitiya valley in the Dumbara Mountain Range, the new species is given the common name “ Dumbara valley spiny mouse ” in English and “ Dumbara katu heen meeya ” in Sinhala.</p><p>Distribution.</p><p>Mus dumbara is currently known only from the type locality at Puwakpitiya in a valley in the north of the Dumbara Mountain Range.</p><p>Diagnosis.</p><p>Mus dumbara sp. nov. is a medium-sized species of Mus (Pyromys) characterised by a unique combination of external and cranial characters. Externally, the tail is slightly longer than the head – body length. The hind feet have pinkish-white toes, while the remainder of the dorsal surface bears a mixture of fulvous-brown, grey, and white hairs. Cranially, the species exhibits a moderately prominent supraorbital ridge, most clearly expressed at the parietal – frontal junction above the orbit. The least interorbital width is less than 4 mm. The incisive foramina extend posteriorly to the level of the mid – M 1, and the difference between the lengths of the incisive foramina and the bony palate is consistently 2.2–2.7 mm. Both upper and mandibular molar cusp patterns conform to the general murine condition. On the second upper molar (M 2), cusp t 3 is well developed.</p><p>Description.</p><p>Mus dumbara is a medium-sized murine rodent with 74.3 and 77.8 mm HBL in the holotype and paratype, respectively, which were sexually mature females. Tail slender, its length slightly exceeding that of HBL (tail length 107.3, 104.1 % of HBL) and naked. Head length 26.1, 28.0 mm. Ears prominent, with short hairs on both sides of the pinna, height 13.3, 13.5 mm. The dorsum appears speckled due to pale fulvous fine hairs and greyish brown spiny guard hairs with a broad silvery white line in the middle. The venter is white. The ventral side of tail is also white to the tip. Dorsal side of the tail is dusky. The dorsal side of fore feet and digits of hind feet are covered with white hair, giving them a pinkish white appearance. Rest of the hind feet have the same colour as the dorsum. The whiskers on the dorsal side are black with silvery white tips and the whiskers on the sides are silvery.</p><p>Skull small with an occipitonasal length of 23.4, 23.6 mm; nasals extending beyond incisors and nasal cavity, covering them in the dorsal view; rounded anterior nasal margins, narrow rostrum, premaxillaries terminating slightly anterior to the level of nasal bones at the posterior margin; moderately deep zygomatic notches; moderately prominent supraorbital ridge which is clearer at the junction between parietal and frontal upon the orbit; interparietal bone is trapezoidal forming a slight indent in the middle towards the sagittal suture; occipital is smooth and rounded; incisive foramina reaching mid first molar (M 1); narrow mesopterygoid fossa of 0.7 mm, 0.7 mm; length of incisive foramina (LIF) longer than length of bony palate (LBP); difference between LIF and LBP 2.7, 2.2 mm; least interorbital width 3.5, 3.7 mm; auditory bullae prominent and globular, with short eustachian tubes; paraoccipital process small. Mandible is thin and elongated, with coronoid process that is slightly higher than the condylar process; coronoid process is small and thin; angular process is short and pointed upwards; both angular notch and sigmoid notch are shallow giving the mandible a flat broad appearance; lower diastema length slightly longer than the mandibular tooth row.</p><p>Comparison.</p><p>Mus dumbara is distinguished from M. mayori and M. fernandoni, the two Sri Lankan spiny mice, by several external and cranial characteristics. Mus dumbara can be differentiated from M. mayori by its overall smaller size (Table 3). It can be distinguished from Mus fernandoni, by having a tail longer than the HBL (vs the tail length shorter than the HBL in M. fernandoni) and pinkish white toes of hind feet with fulvous-brown, white, and grey hairs on rest of the dorsal side of the hind feet (vs pinkish white extending up to ankle on dorsal side of hind feet in M. fernandoni) (Fig. 5). Hind feet colour of M. mayori specimens vary with overall body colour. Specimens that resemble M. fernandoni and M. dumbara have pinkish-white feet, similar to M. fernandoni (Fig. 5 C, D). In contrast, other individuals have feet that are entirely dark brown on the upper surface, or with the extreme tips of the toes appearing white.</p><p>Both M. dumbara and M. fernandoni belong to subgenus Pyromys . Hence, they share skull characteristics of Pyromys which can be used to distinguish them from M. (Coelomys) mayori: presence of supraorbital ridge (vs absence of supraorbital ridge in M. mayori); incisive foramina reaching mid M 1 (vs incisive foramina terminating before anterior root of M 1 in M. mayori) (Fig. 6). In addition to these characteristics, least interorbital width (LIOW) less than 4 mm (vs greater than 4 mm in M. mayori); higher difference (2.2–2.7 mm) between the length of incisive foramen (LIF) and the length of bony palate (LBP) (vs smaller difference (0.1–2.0 mm) in M. mayori); LIF is distinctly longer falling within the range of the LIF of M. mayori and as a percentage of GL, it is 23.4–25.9 % (vs 19.1–22.7 % in M. mayori); larger cusp t 3 of M 2 (vs very small t 3 of M 2 in M. mayori) can also be used to distinguish the two Pyromys species from M. mayori (Table 4; Fig. 7).</p><p>In comparison to M. fernandoni, the skull of M. dumbara is small (Table 4). The moderately prominent supraorbital ridge which is clearer at the junction between parietal and frontal upon the orbit in M. dumbara is also a distinguishing feature compared to the prominent supraorbital ridge of M. fernandoni, along the frontal (Fig. 6). Nasals protrude further from the incisors in M. dumbara while they are shorter in M. fernandoni .</p><p>Mus dumbara differs from all Pyromys species by having a tail longer than HBL in comparison to the others having tails shorter than HBL (Bennett 1832; Wroughton 1912; Thomas 1914; Mohapatra et al. 2021). Similar to that of M. fernandoni all these species have prominent supraorbital ridges running along the side of parietal and frontal up to anterior margin of frontal, hence differ from supraorbital ridge of M. dumbara .</p><p>According to the original description, M. shortridgei is a relatively large mouse with a HBL of 122 mm (range 110–125); TL 101 (85–103); HFL 21.5 (20–22); EH 17.5 (17–19) (Thomas 1914). The GL of skull of type specimen is 30 mm (Thomas 1914) and Marshall (1977) reports an average skull size of 28 mm with incisive foramina long and averaging 6.7 mm. All other Pyromys species including M. dumbara are smaller than M. shortridgei (except some specimens of M. platythrix) and bears incisive foramina which are shorter than 6.5 mm.</p><p>Mus phillipsi is a small mouse, with HBL of 79.0 mm, TL of 60.0 mm, HFL of 14.0 mm, CL 21.5 mm; BSL 18 mm; WB 11 mm; UDL 6.5 mm; MxTL 3.7 mm reported for the holotype specimen (Wroughton 1912), comparable to M. dumbara (Tables 3, 4). It differs from M. dumbara by having a shorter tail in addition to its unique supraorbital ridge that diverges more abruptly when passing backwards from interorbital region that the parieto-frontal area appears ‘ pyriform’ instead of evenly and gradually broadening backwards as in all other Pyromys species including M. dumbara (Fig. 8; Wroughton 1912).</p><p>Mus dumbara is distinctly different from both M. platythrix and M. saxicola . Both M. platythrix and M. saxicola are larger than M. dumbara . The type specimen of M. platythrix is medium sized with a HBL of 82.55 mm, TL of 76.2 mm, HFL of 19.05 mm and EH of 12.7 mm (Bennett 1832). However, the size range could reach as much as M. shortridgei, with a skull size ranging from 26–30 mm but with a shorter incisive foramina averaging 5.9 mm (Marshall 1977). Mus saxicola is also a medium sized rodent. Both M. platythrix and M. saxicola have elongated anterior cusp (t 2) of first upper molar (M 1). In addition, M. saxicola have an anterior accessory cusp on t 2 (Fig. 9). Mus dumbara and other Pyromys species lack the elongated anterior cusp. Mus saxicola also has a characteristically narrow mesopterygoid fossa in comparison to broader mesopterygoid fossa in other Pyromys species (Fig. 9).</p><p>Variation.</p><p>Both specimens were of approximately the same size (HBL: 74.3, 77.8; TL: 79.7, 81.0), had the same pelage colour and texture and skull dimensions and characteristics. There is a slight difference in the extent of incisive foramina penetration between first molars in the two specimens, where 2026.01.01 NH has a deeper penetration, a little beyond the first cusp of the first molar while in 2026.01.02 NH, the foramina stop in the middle region of the first cusp of the first molar.</p><p>Etymology.</p><p>The species name dumbara is an eponym for the region it inhabits, Dumbara Mountain Range in Sri Lanka, treated here as a noun in apposition.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/823EDF2181B25A4CB2232221274038B5	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Pensoft via Plazi	Boyagoda, Suyama H.;Meegaskumbura, Madhava;Manamendra-Arachchi, Kelum	Boyagoda, Suyama H., Meegaskumbura, Madhava, Manamendra-Arachchi, Kelum (2026): Mus (Pyromys) dumbara, a new endemic species of spiny mouse (Mammalia, Rodentia, Muridae) from Sri Lanka. ZooKeys 1280: 265-285, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1280.163907
