_Capromys_ and _Plagiodontia_, the two West Indian genera, were classed among the Echimyidæ by Mr. Waterhouse, but Professor Lilljeborg removes them to this family.
_Extinct Octodontidæ._--Species of _Ctenomys_ have been found in the Pliocene of La Plata, and an extinct genus _Megamys_, said to be allied to _Capromys_, in the Eocene of the same country. In Europe, _Palæomys_ and _Archæomys_ from the lower Miocene of Germany and France, are also said to be allied to _Capromys_.
FAMILY 65.--ECHIMYIDÆ. (10 Genera, 30 Species.)
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | 1. 2 -- -- |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --| 1 -- 3 -- |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- -- | | | | |
The Echimyidæ, or spiny rats, are a family, chiefly South American, of which the Coypu, a large beaver-like water-rat from Peru and Chili is the best known. Two of the genera are found in South Africa, but all the rest inhabit the continent of South America, East of the Andes, none being yet known north { 239}of Panama. The genera are as follows:--_Dactylomys_ (2 sp.), Guiana and Brazil; _Cercomys_ (1 sp.), Central Brazil; _Lasiuromys_ (1 sp.), San Paulo, Brazil; _Petromys_ (1 sp.), South Africa; _Myopotamus_ (1 sp.), the coypu, on the East side of the Andes from Peru to 42° S. lat., on the West side from 33° to 48° S. lat.; _Carterodon_ (1 sp.), Minaes Geraes, Brazil; _Aulacodes_ (1. sp.), West and South Africa; _Mesomys_ (1 sp.), Borba on the Amazon; _Echimys_ (11 sp.), from Guiana and the Ecuadorian Andes to Paraguay; _Loncheres_ (10 sp.), New Granada to Brazil.
_Fossil and Extinct Echimyidæ._--The genus _Carterodon_ was established on bones found in the Brazilian caves, and it was several years afterwards that specimens were obtained showing the animal to be a living species. Extinct species of _Myopotamus_ and _Loncheres_ have also been found in these caves, with the extinct genera _Lonchophorus_ and _Phyllomys_.
No remains of this family have been discovered in North America; but in the Miocene and Upper Eocene deposits of France there are many species of an extinct genus _Theridomys_, which is said to be allied to this group or to the next (Cercolabidæ). _Aulacodon_, from the Upper Miocene of Germany, is allied to the West African _Aulacodes_; and some other remains from the lower Miocene of Auvergne, are supposed to belong to _Echimys_.