VOL. XIV, PP. 27-28 APRIL 2, 1901 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW SPINY RAT FROM LA GUAIRA, 

 VENEZUELA. 



BY OLDFIELD THOMAS. 



A spiny rat collected at La Guaira, Venezuela, by Messrs. 

 Wirt Robinson and M. W. Lyon, Jr. and submitted to me for 

 determination proves to differ from the previously described 

 species. It may be known as: 



Proechimys guairae, sp. n. 



Allied to P. trinitatix, but less richly rufous in color. 



Size rather less than in P. trinitatis. Spines evenly mixed with the 

 dorsal hair, and of about the same prominence on the back; an average 

 spine measures 23 mm. in length by about two-thirds of a millimeter in 

 breadth. General color above much paler than in the allied species, 

 more similar to that of the Ecuadorean P. decumanus Thos. ; pale rufous 

 heavily lined on the back with the black tips to the spines, laterally 

 clearer but still rufous, the hairs indistinctly annulated with brown. 

 Face greyer than back. Fine hairs of ear black, some longer black 

 hairs at its base anteriorly. Under surface white, pure on the chest and 

 belly, buffy on the throat and along a narrow indistinctly defined line 

 edging the color of the flanks. Upper surface of hands and feet white, 

 indistinctly browner along the outer edge of the metapodials. Tail well 

 haired, black above and white below. 



Skull very like that of the smaller mainland form of P. trinitatis (P. 

 urirhi Allen), but more heavily built and without the peculiar slender- 

 ness of muzzle that characterizes that animal. Supraorbital ridges heav- 



4 BIOL. soo> WASH. VOL. XIV, 1901. (27) 



