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 paedulcus
(Sundevall 1846)
[Thallomys] paedulcus
(
Sundevall 1846
)
,
Ofv. K. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Forhandl.
Stockholm
, Vol. 3: 120
.
Type Locality:
South Africa
, "In Caffraria interiore, prope tropicum," (Ellerman et al., 1953); "type locality was in the Magaliesberg area and has been provisionally fixed as Crocodile Drift, Brits, Transvaal [=
Gauteng
]" (D. H. S. Davis, 1965:127).
Vernacular Names:
Acacia Thallomys
.
Synonyms:
Thallomys acaciae
(Roberts 1915)
;
Thallomys lebomboensis
Roberts 1931
;
Thallomys moggi
(
Roberts 1913
)
;
Thallomys rhodesiae
(
Osgood 1910
)
;
Thallomys ruddi
(
Thomas and Wroughton 1908
)
;
Thallomys scotti
Thomas and
Hinton 1923
;
Thallomys somaliensis
(
Roche 1964
)
;
Thallomys stevensoni
Roberts 1933
;
Thallomys zambesiana
Lundholm 1955
.
Distribution:
From NE
South Africa
(N
KwaZulu-Natal
, W
Mpumalanga
,
Limpopo
,
Gauteng
, and
North West
),
Swaziland
, and
Botswana
north through
Zimbabwe
, S
Zambia
,
Mozambique
,
Malawi
,
Tanzania
,
Kenya
to S
Ethiopia
and S
Somalia
; limits unknown. See
Taylor et al. (1995)
for distribution in Southern African Subregion.
Conservation:
IUCN
– Lower Risk (lc).
Discussion:
In body size, the smallest of all the species. Identification of
paedulcus
as a separate species compared with the larger
T. damarensis
and association of
scotti
, were correctly perceived and documented by F.
Petter (1973
a
)
. Thomas and Wroughton's (1908)
ruddi
, described as a species of
Thamnomys
, is a
Thallomys
(
Lawrence and Loveridge, 1953
)
and another example of
T. paedulcus
. Identification of the
holotype
of
paedulcus
, along with critical measurements, recorded by Ellerman et al. (1953) and verified by F.
Petter (1973
a
)
. The names
acaciae
,
lebomboensis
, and
stevensoni
were listed by
Roberts (1951)
as subspecies of
T. moggi
;
rhodesiae
was described by
Osgood (1910)
as a subspecies of
Mus damarensis
(which is here synonymized in
T. nigricauda
); and
zambesiana
was proposed by
Lundholm (1955
a
)
as a subspecies of
T. nigricauda
.
Roche (1964)
described
somaliensis
as a subspecies of
T. paedulcus
. Morphometric contrasts between
T. paedulcus
and
T. nigricauda
provided by
Taylor et al. (1995)
, who also identified a skull from
Kenya
as
T. paedulcus
(a different skull than the one from
Kenya
identified by
Taylor et al., 1995
, as
T. nigricauda
; see that account). Because
Taylor et al. (1995)
found
T. nigricauda
to range widely through the Transvaal, they questioned the identity of the
holotype
of
paedulcus
, even though specimens from
3 km
NNE Brits had 2n = 46, within the range of
T. paedulcus
. Neither the
holotype
of
paedulcus
nor that of
nigricauda
was included in the analyses made by
Taylor et al. (1995)
.
Denys et al. (1999)
found fragments of
T. paedulcus
in owl pellets in N
Malawi
. Southern African population reviewed by
Lovegrove (1997
a
)
, and records from KwaZulu-Natal discussed by Taylor (1998).