Rattus rattus
Creators: name: Musser, Guy G.
name: Carleton, Michael D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1993
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Muridae
Rattus
Rattus rattus

description: <i>Rattus rattus</i> (Linnaeus, 1758). Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1:61. TYPE LOCALITY: Sweden, Uppsala County, Uppsala. DISTRIBUTION: Native to Indian Peninsula, and introduced worldwide in the tropics and temperate zone (Becker, 1978a; de Roguin, 1991; Dieterlen, 1979; Duplantier et al., 19916; Johnson, 1962a, <i>b;</i> Niethammer, 1975; Taylor and Horner, 1973; Taylor et al., 1982; Twigg, 1992; Yosida, 1980; Yosida et al., 1985). SYNONYMS: <i>aethiops, albiventer, albus, alexandrino-rattus, alexandrinus, arboreus, arboricola, asiaticus, ater, atratus, atridorsum, auratus, beccarii, brookei, brunneusculus, caeruleus, ceylonus, chionogaster, coquimbensis, crassipes, cyaneus, doboensis, domesticus, doriae, erythronotus, flavescens, flaviventris, frugivorus, fuliginosus, fulvaster, fuscus, gangutrianus, girensis, griseocaeruleus, indicus</i> (Desmarest, 1822, not Bechstein, 1800), <i>infralineatus (nomen nudum), intermedius, jujensis, jurassicus, kandianus, kandiyanus, kelaarti, kijabius, latipes, leucogaster, muansae, narbadae, nemoralis, nericola, osorninus, picteti, rattiformis, rattoides, rufescens, ruthenus, saltuum, samharensis, satarae, siculae, subcaeruleus, subrufus, sueirensis, sylvestris, tectorum, tetragonurus, tettensis, tompsoni, variabilis, varius</i> (see Allen, 1939; Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951; Mahoney and Richardson, 1988; Osgood, 1943; Schütter and Thonglongya, 1971; Taylor et al., 1982). COMMENTS: Numerous cytogenetic studies focusing on the <i>R. rattus</i> complex, summarized by Baverstock et al. (1983c), Bekasova and Mezhova (1983), Niethammer (1975), and Yosida (1980), have revealed the complex to consist of two basic groups of populations. The Oceanian or European type has 2N=38 (40 in some), the Asian type is characterized by 2N=42; the two are also distinguished by biochemical features (Baverstock et al., 1983c) as well as morphological traits (Schwabe, 1979). Where the Asian type is indigenous, the Oceanian form is restricted to ports or on ships in harbor. Both chromosomal kinds apparently occur together without evidence of interbreeding on the Polynesian island of Fiji (Yosida et al., 1985), but do hybridize in the laboratory (usually producing sterile offspring) and on the South Pacific islands of Chichijima and Eniwetok (with apparent introgression). The biological status of the two kinds were best summarized by Baverstock et al. (1983c:978), who noted that if "the chromosomal, electrophoretic and laboratory hybridization data are considered together, it seems that the 2n=38 and 2n=42 forms are best considered as incipient species. Where they meet, they may introgress, become sympatric without interbreeding or one may replace the other depending upon the prevailing biological conditions," a view earlier espoused by Capanna (1974). <i>Rattus rattus</i> is the name for the 2N=38 /40 group, and we list it as a species separate from the 2N=42 form, for which the oldest name is <i>R. tanezumi</i> (see that account).
description: Published as part of <i>Guy G. Musser &amp; Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 501-755 in Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London :Smithsonian Institution Press</i> on page 658, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098
description: {"references": ["Becker, K. 1978 a. Rattus rattus (Linnaeus, 1758) -- Hausratte (HR). Pp. 382 - 400, in Handbuch der Saugetiere Europas (J. Niethammer and F. Krapp, eds.). Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft (Wiesbaden), 1: 1 - 476.", "de Roguin, L. 1991. Donnees historiques nouvelles sur la presence du rat noir Rattus rattus (L.) en Europe Occidentale. Pp. 323 - 325, in Le rongeur et l'espace, Actes du Colloque International, Lyon, 1989 (M. Le Berre and L. Le Guelte, eds.). Raymond Chabaud, Paris, 362 pp.", "Johnson, D. H. 1962 a. Rodents and other Micronesian mammals collected. IV. A. Pp. 21 - 38, in Pacific island rat ecology. Report of a study made on Ponape and adjacent islands, 1955 - 1958 (T. I. Storer, ed.). Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, 225: 1 - 274.", "Taylor, J. M., and B. E. Horner. 1973. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 98. Systematics of native Australian Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 150: 1 - 130.", "Taylor, J. M., J. H. Calaby, and H. M. Van Deusen. 1982. A revision of the genus Rattus (Rodentia, Muridae) in the New Guinean region. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 173: 177 - 336.", "Twigg, G. I. 1992. The black rat Rattus rattus in the United Kingdon in 1989. Mammal Review, 22: 33 - 42.", "Yosida, T. H. 1980. Cytogenetics of the black rat: Karyotype evolution and species differentiation. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 256 pp.", "Allen, G. M. 1939. A checklist of African mammals. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 83: 1 - 763.", "Ellerman, J. R., and T. C. S. Morrison-Scott. 1951. Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London, 810 pp.", "Mahoney, J. A., and B. J. Richardson. 1988. Muridae. Pp. 154 - 192, in Zoological catalogue of Australia. Mammalia (J. L. Bannister, et. al.). Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 5: 1 - 274.", "Osgood, W. H. 1943. The mammals of Chile. Field Museum of Natural History, Zoological Series, 30: 1 - 268.", "Baverstock, P. R., M. Adams, L. R. Maxson, and T. H. Yosida. 1983 c. Genetic differentiation among karyotypic forms of the black rat, Rattus rattus. Genetics, 105: 969 - 983.", "Bekasova, T. S., and O. N. Mezhova. 1983. Karyotypes of rats of the genus Rattus from the USSR. Experientia, 39: 541 - 542.", "Schwabe, H. W. 1979. Vergleichend-allometrische Untersuchungen an den Schadeln europaischer und asiatischer Hausratten (Rattus rattus L.). Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 44: 354 - 360.", "Capanna, E. 1974. A re-statement of the problem of chromosomal polymorphism in Rattus rattus (L.). Pp. 223 - 235, in Symposium Theriologicum II, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Species and Zoogeography of European Mammals held in Brno, Czechoslovakia on 22 nd to 26 th November 1971 (J. Kratochvil and R. Obrtel, eds.). Academia Publishing house of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Praha), 394 pp."]}