Oryzomys Couesi - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Oryzomys couesi and at least six more narrowly distributed species with peripheral distributions together form the O. couesi group within the genus Oryzomys. The eighth species of the genus, the marsh rice rat (O. palustris) is the only member of its own group (unless western populations are classified as a separate species, O. texensis). Oryzomys previously included many other species, which were reclassified in various studies culminating in contributions by Marcelo Weksler and coworkers in 2006 that removed more than forty species from the genus. All are placed in the tribe Oryzomyini ("rice rats"), a diverse assemblage of over a hundred species, and on higher taxonomic levels in the subfamily Sigmodontinae of the family Cricetidae, along with hundreds of other species of mainly small rodents.