Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Author
Guy G. Musser
Author
Michael D. Carleton
text
1993
Smithsonian Institution Press
Washington and London
Editor
Don E. Wilson
Editor
DeeAnn M. Reeder
Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition)
501
755
book chapter
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7353098
1-56098-217-9
7353098
Mus mahomet
Rhoads, 1896
.
Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.
Philadelphia
, p. 532
.
TYPE LOCALITY:
SC
Ethiopia
, Sheikh Mahomet
.
DISTRIBUTION: Ethiopian highlands (
1500-3400 m
;
Rupp, 1980
; specimens in the Field Museum of Natural History; see map in
Yalden et al., 1976
), SW
Uganda
and SW
Kenya
(specimens in the National Museum of Natural History); limits unknown.
SYNONYMS:
emesi.
COMMENTS: Subgenus
Nannomys
.
Heller (1911)
described
emesi
as a subspecies of
M. musculoides
,
but
Hollister (1919:96)
and
Hatt (1940a)
treated it a a distinct species. Our study of Hatt's series from NE
Zaire
in the American Museum of Natural History revealed they consisted of
M. musculoides
and
M. sorella
.
The
holotype
of
emesi
and most of Hollister's other examples from
Uganda
do represent a species distinct from
M. musculoides
;
in morphology and chromatic traits, we cannot distinguish the series of
emesi
from the large samples of
mahomet
collected by Osgood in
Ethiopia
.
M. mahomet
is sympatric with
M. musculoides
in
Uganda
and
Kenya
and narrowly sympatric or closely parapatric with
M. setulosus
in
Ethiopia
(
Yalden et al., 1976
; specimens in the Field Museum of Natural History).
Yalden et al. (1976:30)
suspected
kerensis
might be the correct name for
M. mahomet
.