New report of little Indian field mouse, Mus hooduga (Gray) from Andaman and Nicobar Islands

摘要

Order Rodentia, the largest group among mammals, represents almost 40 per cent of mammals comprising around 389 genera and 1,700 species in 35 families throughout the world. In India, 101 species of rodents under 43 genera and four families have beenreported. Fifteen species are regarded as endemic to the country (Mandal and Chakrabarty, 1999). Muridae is the largest family represented by 28 genera and 68 species in India (Agarwal, 2000). The Indian field mouse, Mus booduga (Gray, 1837), (Family Muridae) is a widely distributed rodent in India, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It is a fairly abundant rodent species in the country, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, causing loss to standing crops (Sridhara band Tripathi, 2005). In Andhra Pradesh the infestation ratio of this species to the lesser bandicoot rat, Bandicota bengalensis, was reported to be 7:3 (Purushotham and Rao, 1979). Recently, this mouse was reported from irrigatedfields in arid regions also (Idris et al., 2004). Present study is the first report of occurrence of this rodent species from Andaman and Nicobar Islands.