EPIMYS 575 



Genus EPIMYS. 



1867. Rattus, L. Fitzinger, Sitzungsb. kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien.,math.-nat. CI., Ivi., 

 Abt., I, 63, included rattus, decumanus, alexandrinus, and others ; antedated by 

 Rattus, Donovan, Naturalist's Repository, iii., pi. 73, page unnumbered, 1827, based 

 on R. donovatti from the Cape of Good Hope. (Rattus, Frisch, Das Natur-System 

 vierfiiss. Thiere, in Tabellen, 7 Tab. gen., 1775 ; and Rattus, Zimmermann, 

 Specimen Zool. Geog. Quad., 344-7, 1777, are not regarded as valid.) 



1881. Epimys, E. L. Trouessart, Bull. Soc. d'Jitudes Sci. d^Angers, x, 117 (sub- 

 genus) ; based on Mus rattus of Linnaeus (type) ; Miller, Proc. Biol. Soc, 

 (IVasAington), xxiii., 58, 19th April 1910 (genus); Thomas, Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist, December 1910, 604 (genus). 



Mus of most authors. 



Classification: — In 1910, Miller adopted Trouessart's name, 

 Epimys (originally proposed as a sub-genus, of which Mus 

 rattus, Linnaeus, is the type), as the generic name of the House 

 Rats, and restricted the Linnaean genus Mus to Mus musculus, 

 Linnaeus, and its allies. The genus Epimys was further 

 defined by Thomas (cited above). 



As now understood, Epimys is the largest genus of the 

 sub-family, and includes a great number of Asiatic, Malayan, 

 African, and Australian species. Many of these species, par- 

 ticularly in Africa, are of small size, and would be termed 

 generally "mice" rather than "rats." 



The genus is doubtless of Oriental origin, and in view of 

 its wide natural distribution it must date from a comparatively 

 remote epoch. 



In Europe it may have been represented in the late 

 Pleistocene (see p. 588) ; but if then present it subsequently 

 died out. It is now represented here only by the two well- 

 known species of true rat, E. rattus and E. norvegicus, 

 both of which are comparatively recent immigrants from the 

 East. E. rattus appears to have been introduced about the 

 time of the Crusades, while its rival, E. norvegicus, did not 

 appear here before the beginning of the eighteenth century. 

 These two species owe their introduction to Europe, and 

 their more recently acquired cosmopolitan distribution, to their 

 parasitic habits, and their readiness to take advantage of the 

 facilities for travel afforded by human commerce. 



In this genus the external form and skull characters are 

 essentially those of typical or but slightly specialised Murines. 



