Hylaeamys is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

n oryzomyine

Oryzomyini

Oryzomyini is a tribe of rodents in the subfamily Sigmodontinae of family Cricetidae. It includes about 120 species in about thirty genera, distributed from the eastern United States to the southernmost parts of South America, including many offshore islands...

 rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....

s found principally in humid forested areas east of the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

. The species in this genus have historically been placed in Oryzomys

Oryzomys

Oryzomys is a genus of semiaquatic rodents in the tribe Oryzomyini living in southern North America and far northern South America. It includes eight species, two of which—the marsh rice rat of the United States and O. couesi of Mexico and Central America—are widespread; the six others have...

. They are most closely related to Euryoryzomys

Euryoryzomys

Euryoryzomys is a genus of rodents in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. It includes six species, which are distributed in South America. Until 2006, its members were included in the genus Oryzomys, but they are not closely related to the type species of that genus, and therefore they were...

, Transandinomys

Transandinomys

Transandinomys is a genus of rodents in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. It includes two species—T. bolivaris and T. talamancae—found in forests from Honduras in Central America south and east to southwestern Ecuador and northwestern Venezuela in northern South America...

, Nephelomys

Nephelomys

Nephelomys is a genus of South American oryzomyine rodents found in the Andes from Bolivia to Venezuela, with a westward extension into the mountains of Costa Rica...

, Oecomys

Oecomys

Oecomys is a genus of rodent within the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. It contains about 17 species, which live in trees and are distributed across forested parts of South America, extending into Panama and Trinidad.-Literature cited:...

, and Handleyomys

Handleyomys

Handleyomys is a genus of Central and South American rodents in the tribe Oryzomyini of family Cricetidae. It was first described in 2002 to include two species from the Colombian Andes which were previously included in distinct and unrelated genera, Aepeomys and Oryzomys, but which turned out to...

, and most closely resemble species of the former two genera. They are distinguished from members of Euryoryzomys by all-dark or indistinct two-tone tail coloration (as opposed to the distinct two-tone tail coloration of Euryoryzomys), from members of Transandinomys by having shorter whiskers above their eyes that do not extend posteriorly behind their ears, and in both cases by differences in carotid circulation

Common carotid artery

In human anatomy, the common carotid artery is an artery that supplies the head and neck with oxygenated blood; it divides in the neck to form the external and internal carotid arteries. - Structure :...

. The genus is named after hylaea ("forest" in Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

), the term used by Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...

 for the lowland South American rainforests

Tropical rainforest

A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...

 that are the main habitat of the genus.

The genus currently comprises the following species:

• Hylaeamys acritus
  Hylaeamys acritus
  Hylaeamys acritus, formerly Oryzomys acritus, is an oryzomyine rodent of the family Cricetidae. It is known only from northeastern Bolivia. It is terrestrial and is found in moist lowland semideciduous forest and savanna.-References:...
  
  
• Hylaeamys laticeps
  Hylaeamys laticeps
  Hylaeamys laticeps, also known as the Atlantic Forest Oryzomys or Large-headed Rice Rat, is a species of rodent in the genus Hylaeamys of family Cricetidae. It occurs in the Atlantic Forest region of southeastern Brazil...
  
  
• Hylaeamys megacephalus
• Hylaeamys oniscus
  Hylaeamys oniscus
  Hylaeamys oniscus, also known as the Sowbug Rice Rat, is a rodent species in the genus Hylaeamys of family Cricetidae. It was formerly placed in the genus Oryzomys as Oryzomys oniscus. It occurs only in northeastern Brazil...
  
  
• Hylaeamys perenensis
• Hylaeamys tatei
• Hylaeamys yunganus