Mammalia 2018; aop Short Note Franger J. García*, Elvira Sánchez-González, Marjorie Machado, Guillermo Flórez, Dayana Araujo-Reyes, Oriana Vásquez-Parra and David Prieto-Torres First record of the Santa Marta mouse, Nephelomys maculiventer (Mammalia, Rodentia, Cricetidae), for Venezuela https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2017-0160 Received November 27, 2017; accepted April 18, 2018 Abstract: We report the first record of the Santa Marta mouse Nephelomys maculiventer in Venezuela based on a specimen from the Northern Andes in the Sierra de Perijá. This record increases the number of mammalian species documented in Venezuela to 404 and extends the geographic distribution range of N. maculiventer approximately 80 km northwest from the closest locality in Colombia. With this discovery, we update the ecologi- cal and conservation information for the species as well as the taxonomy of the genus Nephelomys. Keywords: Andes; National Park; new record; Perijá; Sigmodontinae; Venezuela. The Santa Marta mouse, Nephelomys maculiventer (Allen 1899), is a sigmodontine of the tribe Oryzomyini (Perce- quillo 2015). Individuals of this species are characterized by a medium-to-large body size and a tail longer than the head and body length. They have a soft dorsal pelage and a ventral pelage with white patches of self-colored hairs, varying in length and covering from the gular to inguinal regions (Percequillo 2003, 2015). Supported by morphological and cytogenetic data, Nephelomys maculiventer was revalidated as a differ- ent species from Nephelomys meridensis (Thomas 1984) (Percequillo 2015). This species had been considered as restricted to Colombia, and it is found in three depart- ments in montane and cloud forests at elevations above 900 m: Cesar (Sierra Negra), La Guajira (San Miguel and Macotama) and Magdalena [Sierra el Libano (type local- ity), Cincinati, Cerro San Lorenzo and Santa Marta] (Per- cequillo 2003, 2015). For the first time, we report Nephelomys maculiven- ter in Venezuela, based on a morphological and quanti- tative review of one specimen collected in the Sierra de Perijá, in the western Venezuelan Andean region. Addi- tionally, we present new ecological information related to habitat and sympatry with other non-volant small mammals. The new record is from Kunana (10°03′02″N, 72°47′45.0″W; 1100 m above sea level), Río Negro, Sierra de Perijá National Park, Estado Zulia (Figure 1). The specimen (Figure 2) is an adult male (age class 3; Per- cequillo 2003), captured by José Luis Méndez Arocha (field number: JLMA–1354), on 28 December 1950. It was preserved as skin and skull (nasals broken and absent), and it is housed in the Museo de Historia Natural La Salle (MHNLS, Caracas, Venezuela) (Appendix 1), with the cata- logue number: MHNLS–155. The external and cranial measurements (Table 1) and morphological characters corresponded to those indi- cated for Nephelomys maculiventer (Figure 2): (1) dorsally, the specimen has bicolored pelage, long, dense and lax, *Corresponding author: Franger J. García, Departamento de Biología, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias y Tecnología (FACyT), Universidad de Carabobo, Campus Bárbula, Municipio Naguanagua, Valencia 2005, Venezuela, e-mail: cormura@yahoo.com Elvira Sánchez-González, Dayana Araujo-Reyes and Oriana Vásquez-Parra: Departamento de Biología, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias y Tecnología (FACyT), Universidad de Carabobo, Campus Bárbula, Municipio Naguanagua, Valencia 2005, Venezuela Marjorie Machado: Departamento de Biología, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias y Tecnología (FACyT), Universidad de Carabobo, Campus Bárbula, Municipio Naguanagua, Valencia 2005, Venezuela Guillermo Flórez: Departamento de Biología, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias y Tecnología (FACyT), Universidad de Carabobo, Campus Bárbula, Municipio Naguanagua, Valencia 2005, Venezuela; and Pós-graduação em Evolução e Diversidade, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Campinas, Brasil David Prieto-Torres: Eje Biociencias, Centro de Modelado Científico (CMC-LUZ), Universidad del Zulia, Avenida Universidad, Calle 65 con Avenida Universidad, Sector Grado de Oro, Municipio Maracaibo, Maracaibo 4002, Venezuela; and Museo de Biología de la Universidad del Zulia (MBLUZ), Facultad Experimental de Ciencias, Universidad del Zulia, Municipio Maracaibo, Maracaibo 4002, Venezuela Brought to you by | University of Massachusetts - Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Library Authenticated Download Date | 5/27/18 1:15 AM