著者

徳田 御稔 鹿野 忠雄

出版者

社団法人日本動物学会

雑誌

動物学雑誌 (ISSN:00445118)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.50, no.2, pp.84-87, 1938-02-15

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Rattus mindanensis is a rat common in the Phillippine Islands. The northern limit of the range of the species has been known to be the Babuyanes Islands. One of the authors, KANO obtained two specimens of the rat from Botel-Tobago in his exploration of the island carried out in 1937. The specimens were studies by TOKUDA and has been ascertained as belonging to the named species. This rat seems to be endemic to the locality, since the islanders believe it to be a native rat, calling it by a name of "Karamrirara" to distinguish it from "Karam-riraol" of the cosmopolitan rats. If the rat is really endemic to the island, the occurrence of the species in Botel-Tobago will bear an important significance to the paleogeography of this and neighbouring islands, favouring KANO's view of the comparative recency of the hypothetical land-bridge between Luzon and Botel-Tobago through Babuyanes and Batanes, since this rat of Botel-Tobago is scarecely diverged from the form of the Philippine Islands.