Hydromys hussoni Musser and Piik 1982

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1334

Hydromys hussoni Musser and Piik 1982

Hydromys hussoni Musser and Piik 1982 , Zool. Meded. Leiden, 56: 157.

Type Locality: New Guinea, Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya), Wissel Lakes, Lake Paniai, Enarotali, 1765 m (see Musser and Piik, 1982, for other details).

Vernacular Names: Husson's Water Rat.

Distribution: New Guinea; known only from the Wissel Lakes region in the W foothill margin of the Snow Mtns (Pegunungan Maoke) in Prov. of Papua (= Irian Jaya) ( Flannery, 1990 b:186, 1995 a; Musser and Piik, 1982:156); limits unresolved.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Overall morphology and anatomical proportions of H. hussoni are like those of H. chrysogaster , although it is much smaller than that species ( Musser and Piik, 1982). Ziegler (1984) identified a specimen as H. hussoni obtained from Bianyik, 5 km south of Maprik in lowlands (213 m) of the Torricelli Mtns on N coast of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. This specimen is about the same body size as the series from Enarotali, has smaller skull and bullae, shorter molar rows ( Ziegler, 1984) and to us is not an example of H. hussoni , but represents a separate undescribed species (K. Helgen, in litt., 2004, who examined the specimen, concurs).