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Large-headed rice rat
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Cricetidae
Subfamily:	Sigmodontinae
Genus:	Hylaeamys
Species:	H. megacephalus
Binomial name
Hylaeamys megacephalus (Fischer, 1814)
Synonyms
Mus megacephalus Fischer, 1814 Mus capito Olfers, 1818 Oryzomys capito Cabrera, 1961 Oryzomys megacephalus Bonvicino et al., 1996 megacephalus Weksler et al., 1996

Hylaeamys megacephalus, also known as Azara's broad-headed oryzomys or the large-headed rice rat, is a species of rodent in the genus Hylaeamys of family Cricetidae, of which it is the type species. It is found mainly in lowland tropical rainforest from its type locality in Paraguay north through central Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela onto Trinidad and Tobago. To its west and east, other closely related species of Hylaeamys are found: H. perenensis in western Amazonia, H. acritus in Bolivia, and H. laticeps and H. oniscus in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil.

Taxonomy

It was first described by Spanish naturalist Félix de Azara. Based on his description, several names were given to the animal, including Mus megacephalus Fischer, 1814 and Mus capito Olfers, 1818, both of which were largely forgotten for over a century. When capito was rediscovered in 1960, it came in use (as Oryzomys capito) for a "species" that included about all species now placed in Euryoryzomys, Hylaeamys and Transandinomys. Later, its scope was restricted, most definitively in a detailed study in 1998 by Guy Musser and coworkers, who also reinstated the older name Mus megacephalus (as Oryzomys megacephalus). In subsequent years, the western Amazonian H. perenensis was reinstated as a species and both were moved to the new genus Hylaeamys, because they are not closely related to the type species of Oryzomys.

References

1. ^ Percequillo, A.; Patton, J.; Pires-Costa, L.; D'Elia, G.; Patterson, B. (2017) . "Hylaeamys megacephalus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T29403A115168269. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
   • Weksler, M.; Percequillo, A. R.; Voss, R. S. (2006-10-19). "Ten new genera of oryzomyine rodents (Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae)" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (3537). New York: American Museum of Natural History: 1–29. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2006)3537[1:TNGOOR]2.0.CO;2. hdl:2246/5815. ISSN 0003-0082. S2CID 84088556.
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. p. 1151. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
3. Musser, G.G.; Carleton, M.D.; Brothers, E.M.; Gardner, A.L. (1998). "Systematic studies of oryzomyine rodents (Muridae: Sigmodontinae): diagnoses and distributions of species formerly assigned to Oryzomys "capito"". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 236: 1–376. hdl:2246/1630.

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• IUCN Red List least concern species
• Hylaeamys
• Rodents of Brazil
• Mammals of French Guiana
• Mammals of Paraguay
• Mammals of Trinidad and Tobago
• Mammals of the Caribbean
• Mammals of Guyana
• Mammals of Suriname
• Mammals described in 1814
• Taxa named by Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim
• Sigmodontinae stubs