Mayor's mouse

Mus mayori is a species of rodent in the genus Mus, the mice. Its common names include Mayor's mouse, highland rat,[1] and spiny mouse.[2] It is endemic to Sri Lanka.[1]

Mayor's mouse
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Genus: Mus
Species:
M. mayori
Binomial name
Mus mayori
(Thomas, 1915)
Subspecies

Mus mayori mayori
Mus mayori pococki

This mouse lives in tropical and subtropical forest types and wet grassland habitat. It is fossorial, seeking shelter by digging burrows. It is nocturnal.[1]

This species is widespread in parts of Sri Lanka but it faces a number of threats, including deforestation and domestic cats.[1]

There are two subspecies, M. m. mayori and M. m. pococki. A recent study catalogued the parasites associated with subspecies pococki: a mite of genus Echinolaelaps, a tick of genus Ixodes, and the sucking louse Polyplax spinulosa.[3] A new species of pseudoscorpion was found on the mouse, described, and named Megachernes kanneliyensis.[4] The mouse also carries the native Sri Lankan flea Stivalius phoberus.[5]

References
  1. de A. Goonatilake, W., et al. Mus mayori. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008. Downloaded on 07 January 2016.
  2. Wijesinghe, M. R. Predicting effects of rainforest fragmentation from live trapping studies of small mammals in Sri Lanka. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(6): 2629-2636.
  3. Ratnaweera, P. B., et al. (2010). Parasitic associations of a threatened Sri Lankan rainforest rodent, Mus mayor pococki (Rodentia: Muridae). Journal of Threatened Taxa, 2(6), 901-907.
  4. Harvey, M. S., et al. (2012). A new species of the pseudoscorpion genus Megachernes (Pseudoscorpiones: Chernetidae) associated with a threatened Sri Lankan rainforest rodent, with a review of host associations of Megachernes. Journal of Natural History, 46(41-42), 2519-2535.
  5. Yathramullage, S., Meegaskumbura, M., and Meegaskumbura, S. (2014). Record of five new endemic small mammal hosts for four ectoparasite species from Sri Lanka. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology 17 473-476.
  • Wilson, D. E. & Reeder, D. M. Mus (Coelomys) mayori. Mammal Species of the World. Third Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press.


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