spiny rat

English

Noun

spiny rat (plural spiny rats)

1. Any of certain caviomorph rodents of the family Echimyidae, especially of genus Proechimys, that resemble rats and have stiff, pointed hairs, or spines.
   • 1999, Egbert Giles Leigh Jr., Tropical Forest Ecology : A View from Barro Colorado Island, page 28:

     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).

   • 2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, page 232:

     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.

2. Any murine rodent of the genus Maxomys (sometimes considered a subgenus of Rattus).
3. Any murine rodent of the genus Tokudaia.
4. Any murine rodent of the genus Echiothrix.

Derived terms

• Central Sulawesi spiny rat (Echiothrix centrosa)
• large New Guinea spiny rat (Rattus praetor)
• Mindanao spiny rat (Tarsomys echinatus)
• small spiny rat (Rattus steini)
• Sulawesi spiny rat (Echiothrix leucura)

Translations

rodent of the family Echimyidae

• Finnish: piikkirotta, amerikanpiikkirotta
• French: échinomyie (fr) f
• Italian: echimiidi m pl

rodent of the genus Maxomys

• Finnish: idänokarotta, aasianokarotta
• Italian: maxomys m pl

rodent of the genus Tokudaia

• Finnish: japaninokahiiri
• Italian: muridi m pl, tokudaia

rodent of the genus Echiothrix

• Finnish: sulawesinokarotta
• Italian: muridi m pl, echiothrix m pl

See also

• spiny long-footed rat (= Mindanao spiny rat)
• spiny tree-rat
• tenrec

Anagrams

• prytanis