Akodon mollis Thomas, 1894

VOSS, ROBERT S., 2003, A New Species of Thomasomys (Rodentia: Muridae) from Eastern Ecuador, with Remarks on Mammalian Diversity and Biogeography in the Cordillera Oriental, American Museum Novitates 3421, pp. 1-48 : 22

Akodon mollis Thomas

SPECIMENS COLLECTED: 12.5 km W (by road) Papallacta, 13,520 ft (UMMZ 155597); 10.6 km W (by road) Papallacta, 12,600 ft (UMMZ 155596, 155777); 7.5 km W (by road) Papallacta, 12,000 ft (UMMZ 155591– 155595); 6.2 km W (by road) Papallacta, 11,700 ft (UMMZ 155586–155590, 155778– 155780).

OTHER MATERIAL: Three additional specimens were collected at ‘‘ Tablon , road to Papallacta’ ’ with recorded elevations of 10,500–11,500 ft [3200–3505 m] by L. Söderström in 1903 and 1913. Another nine specimens ( AMNH 47156–47164 ) taken by the same collector in 1914 are labeled ‘‘ Mt. Antisana 12000 feet’’ [3658 m]. Forty­two more specimens ( AMNH 66450 –66491 ) were collected by H.E. Anthony and G.H.H. Tate between 4115 and 4570 m on Antisana in 1923. Lastly, three specimens ( AMNH 67330 , 67332 , 67334 ) collected in 1924 by R. Olalla are labeled ‘‘ Mt. Guamanı´, road to Papallacta’ ’ with recorded elevations of 12,000–13,000 ft [3658–3962 m] .

TAXONOMY: The Papallacta material closely resembles the type of Akodon mollis altorum as originally described by Thomas (1913) based on a specimen collected at 2600 m in the Ecuadorean province of Cañar. No substantive analysis of character data, however, is available to support the current hypothesis ( Cabrera, 1961; Musser and Carleton, 1993) that altorum, a highland taxon, is really conspecific with the geographically adjacent lowland forms mollis Thomas (1894) and fulvescens Hershkovitz (1940) . As noted by Myers and Patton (1989), Akodon mollis as currently recognized has a very large geographic range and exhibits substantial geographic variation. Given their conclusion that fumeus Thomas (1902) —another taxon formerly ranked as a subspecies or synonym of mollis —is a valid species, a comprehensive revision of this complex is long overdue.

FIELD OBSERVATIONS: The 16 specimens of Akodon mollis that I collected near Papallacta in 1980 were trapped at elevations ranging from 3600 to 4160 m. Of these, 13 were taken in the shrubby páramo/forest ecotone, and 3 in grassy páramo. All recorded captures were on the ground: 5 in tunnels among the bases of tall bunch grass, 5 among wet litter under mossy shrubs, 4 in runways through mixed bunch grass and bushes, 1 in a rabbit trail beneath low herbaceous cover, and 1 beneath an earth bank .