Mole rat or mole-rat refers to several groups of burrowing rodents or * Bathyergidae, a family of about 20 species from Africa, including:
- Heterocephalus glaber, the naked mole rat
- Spalacidae, a family of about 30 species from Eurasia and northeast Africa, including:
- Tachyoryctes, a genus of about 15 species from Africa
- Blind mole rats (Spalacinae), a subfamily of about 15 living species from southeastern Europe, southwestern Asia, and northeastern Africa;
- Zokors (Myospalacinae), occasionally called mole rats, about eight species from central and eastern Asia
- Nesokia indica from southern and southwestern Asia and Egypt, also known as the short-tailed mole rat
- Bandicota bengalensis from southern Asia, also known as the Indian mole rat
- Chelemys macronyx from southernmost South America, also known as the mountain mole rat
Famous quotes containing the words mole and/or rat:
“On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I’ th’ bottom of a cowslip.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It is restful, tragedy, because one knows that there is no more lousy hope left. You know you’re caught, caught at last like a rat with all the world on its back. And the only thing left to do is shout—not moan, or complain, but yell out at the top of your voice whatever it was you had to say. What you’ve never said before. What perhaps you don’t even know till now.”
—Jean Anouilh (1910–1987)