Order Rodentia - Family Muridae Author Wilson, Don E. Author Reeder, DeeAnn text 2005 The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2 1189 1531 book chapter 0-8018-8221-4 10.5281/zenodo.7316535 Thallomys loringi (Heller 1909) [Thallomys] loringi ( Heller 1909 ) , Smithson. Misc. Coll., 52: 471 . Type Locality: E Kenya , Lake Naivasha. Vernacular Names: Loring's Thallomys . Distribution: Known only by specimens from E Kenya , and N and E Tanzania ; limits unknown. Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc). Discussion: Originally described as a species of Thamnomys ( Heller, 1909 ) , then listed as a subspecies of Thallomys nigricauda (G. M. Allen, 1939 ; Ellerman, 1941 ), and finally allocated to T. damarensis (here included in nigricauda ) as a subspecies (F. Petter, 1973 a ). Thallomys loringi is morphologically and probably phylogenetically allied to T. nigricauda , but no critical documentation of its conspecificity with that species has ever been presented. Because T. loringi can be diagnosed by pelage and other distinctions, we list it as a species, a hypothesis that can be tested by careful systematic revision of samples from regions outside of southern Africa. Morphometric analyses presented by Taylor et al. (1995) identified a skull from Kenya as possibly being T. nigricauda , which highlights the need to determine the relationship between that species and T. loringi .