and beetles, and other invertebrates. It probably breeds around the year and after a pregnancy of 21 to 28 days, the female produces litters of two to seven young, with an average of 3.8, according to Reid's Mammals of Central America & Southeast Mexico. In 28 pregnant females from Nicaragua, litter size varied from one to eight, averaging 4.4. The young become reproductively active when seven weeks old and the life cycle is short. The introduced snake Boa constrictor preys on O. couesi on Cozumel. Parasites recorded on O. couesi in Veracruz include unidentified ticks, mites, fleas, and fly larvae. The flea Polygenis odiosus was found on an Oryzomys couesi from Cozumel. Out of ten O. couesi in San Luis Potosí, five each were infected by the nematode worms Hassalstrongylus musculi and H. bocqueti, with about 25 worms per rat, and two were infected by one or two cestodes of the genus Raillietina. The mites Eubrachylaelaps circularis and Gigantolaelaps boneti have been found on Oryzomys couesi in Oaxaca, the sucking louse Hoplopleura oryzomydis in Nicaragua, the mites Laelaps oryzomydis, Echinonyssus microchelae, Ornithonyssus bacoti, Prolistrophorus frontalis, and Prolistrophorus bakeri in Colima, and the apicomplexan Eimeria couesii in Mexico. The species is infected by two hantaviruses—Catacamas virus in Honduras and Playa de Oro virus in western Mexico—which are related to the Bayou virus infecting the marsh rice rat, a common cause of hantavirus infections in the United States. No hantavirus infections in humans have been linked to O. couesi hantaviruses, however. Chiapas O. couesi easily survive experimental infection with several arboviruses, including the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, suggesting that the species may serve as a reservoir for that virus. Conservation status The IUCN lists Oryzomys couesi as "Least Concern", because it is a widely distributed, common species with broad habitat tolerance that occurs in many protected areas. Habitat destruction, such as drainage of wetlands, may threaten some populations. In many areas, it is so common that it is considered a plague species. Populations even persist in the Valley of Mexico, as evidenced by a photograph published in 2006. However, the species is listed as threatened in Texas, where its distribution is very limited, because of habitat loss. In 1979, Benson and Gehlbach estimated the size of the Texas population to be about 15,000. A 2001 study predicted that climate change would drive the Texas population to extinction, because no suitable habitats would