Voalavo
| Voalavo | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Nesomyidae |
| Subfamily: | Nesomyinae |
| Genus: |
Voalavo Carleton and Goodman, 1998 |
| Type species | |
|
Voalavo gymnocaudus Carleton and Goodman, 1998 |
|
| Species | |
 |
|
| Known localities of V. gymnocaudus (red) and V. antsahabensis (green) | |
Voalavo is a genus of rodent in the subfamily Nesomyinae, found only in Madagascar. Two species are known, both of which occur in mountain forest above 1250 m (4100 ft) altitude; the northern voalavo lives in northern Madagascar and eastern voalavo is restricted to a small area in the central part of the island. The genus was discovered in 1994 and formally described in 1998. Within Nesomyinae, it is most closely related to the genus Eliurus, and DNA sequence data suggest that the current definitions of these two genera need to be changed.
Species of Voalavo are small, gray, mouse-like rodents, among the smallest nesomyines. They lack the distinctive tuft of long hairs on the tail that is characteristic of Eliurus. The tail is long and females have six mammae. In Voalavo, there are two glands on the chest (absent in Eliurus) that produce a sweet-smelling musk in breeding males. In the skull, the facial skeleton is long and the braincase is smooth. The incisive foramina (openings in the front part of the palate) are long and the bony palate itself is smooth. The molars are somewhat hypsodont (high-crowned), though less so than in Eliurus, and the third molars are reduced in size and complexity.
A specimen of the genus was first collected in 1994 in Anjanaharibe-Sud, northern Madagascar. The genus was named Voalavo in 1998 by Michael Carleton and Steven Goodman, with a single species, the type northern voalavo, restricted to the Northern Highlands of Madagascar. The generic name Voalavo is a Malagasy word for "rodent". A second species, eastern voalavo, was named by Goodman and colleagues in 2005 from the region of Anjozorobe in the Central Highlands. The two Voalavo species are closely related and quite similar, but differ in various subtle morphological characters (mainly measurements) and by 10% in the sequence of the gene .
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