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
Myomyscus angolensis
(Bocage 1890)
[Myomyscus] angolensis
(Bocage 1890)
,
J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat.
Lisboa
, ser. 2, 2: 12
.
Type Locality:
Angola
, Capangombe, interior of Moçâmedes District,
527 m
(additional information provided by
Crawford-Cabral, 1989
b
, 1998
)
.
Vernacular Names:
Angolan Myomyscus
.
Synonyms:
Myomyscus angolae
(Crawford-Cabral 1989)
.
Distribution:
W
Angola
, primarily on the Angolan Plateau (
Crawford-Cabral, 1998
).
Conservation:
IUCN
– Lower Risk (lc) as
Mastomys angolensis
.
Discussion:
Our inclusion of this species in
Myomyscus
is provisional. It has been placed in
Rattus
(
Ellerman, 1941
)
,
Myomyscus
(or
Myomys
) (G. M.
Allen, 1939
; D. H. S. Davis, 1965;
Hill and Carter, 1941
),
Praomys
(see references in
Crawford-Cabral, 1989
b
), or regarded as a species of
Mastomys
(
Crawford-Cabral, 1989
b
, 1998
;
Misonne, 1974
).
Ansell (1978)
and Ellerman et al. (1953) thought it morphologically similar to
M. shortridgei
, which they treated as a subspecies of
M. angolensis
. In their review of
Mastomys
systematics,
Granjon et al. (1997
b
)
transferred
angolensis
to
Myomys
and retained
shortridgei
in
Mastomys
. Incorporation of
M. angolensis
in phylogenetic analyses derived from morphological and molecular data is needed to clarify its relationship.
Myomyscus angolensis
is either sympatric (
Hill and Carter, 1941
;
Crawford-Cabral, 1983
,
1998
) or altitudinally parapatric (specimens in
FMNH
from Mt Soque) with
Mastomys natalensis
in
Angola
.
In a report devoted to the identity of Bocage’s
Mus angolensis
,
Crawford-Cabral (1989
b
)
noted that the type series was destroyed by fire in the Lisbon Museum in 1978. According to the original description the specimens represented a species with a tail much longer than head and body, white feet, soft and thick fur, and five pairs of teats, all characters of other species in
Myomyscus
. Crawford-Cabral considered Angolan specimens collected after 1890 outside of the Capangombe region and identified as
angolensis
to be another species. He proposed
Praomys angolae
for this rat and considered it a
Mastomys
, not an example of
Myomyscus
. In our view he simply renamed Bocage’s
angolensis
.