spiny rat
noun1
Any of certain caviomorph rodents of the family Echimyidae of Neotropical spiny rats, especially of genus Proechimys, that resemble rats and have stiff, pointed hairs, or spines.
- Spiny rats, Proechimys semispinosus, are rodents weighing up to 500 g which eat fruits and seeds that have fallen to the forest floor. In Lutz catchment, a spiny rat's territory is three-fifths as wide as an agouti's (Smythe et al. 1982).1999, Egbert Giles Leigh Jr., Tropical Forest Ecology : A View from Barro Colorado Island, page 28:
- Members of the important Neotropical family Echimyidae, which includes a viety of roughly rat-sized rodents, are called spiny rats.[…]Spiny rats are widely distributed in the Neotropics, occurring from Nicaragua southward through the northern half of South America to Paraguay and south-eastern Brazil.2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, page 232:
› Any of certain genera of family Muridae of rodents:
2
Any member of two species of genus Rattus.
3
Any member of the species of genus Maxomys (sometimes considered a subgenus of Rattus).
4
A Ryukyu spiny rats (Tokudaia).
5
A Sulawesi spiny rats (Echiothrix).
- Derived terms
- Central Sulawesi spiny rat, large New Guinea spiny rat, large spiny rat, Mindanao spiny rat, small spiny rat, Sulawesi spiny rat
- Related terms
- spiny long-footed rat, spiny mouse, spiny tree-rat, tenrec