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HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER MYOMORPHA
--> SUPERFAMILY Muroidea
--> FAMILY Cricetidae
--> SUBFAMILY Lophiomyinae
--> GENUS Lophiomys
SPECIES Lophiomys imhausi
| Author: | Milne-Edwards, 1867. | | Citation: | L’Institut, Paris, 35: 46. | | Common Name: | Maned Rat | | Type Locality: | Somalia ("Probably from African coast opposite Aden, where it was purchased," G. M. Allen, 1939:315; also see Thomas, 1910c:222). | | Distribution: | E Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, NE Uganda, and W Tanzania (Kock and Künzel, 1999); sea level to 3300 m in Ethiopia (Yalden et al., 1976), in lowland forests in Djibouti (Pearch et al., 2001), but apparently restricted to mountain forest in Kenya and Uganda (Delany, 1975; Clausnitzer and Kityo, 2001; Hollister, 1919). | | Status: | IUCN – Lower Risk (lc). | | Comments: | Thomas (1910c) recognized four species of Lophiomys, but Ellerman (1940:636) noted that "Thomas evidently came to the conclusion that all the East African ‘species’ were one, as there is a note in his tracts to this effect. I am inclined to go further and think that until more material comes to hand all forms must be treated as races of the earliest name imhausi." G. M. Allen (1939:315) independently noted that "All the recognizable forms are doubtless races of L. imhausi." Ellerman’s view prevails today and has yet to be tested by careful taxonomic revision. Distribution in the isolated Harenna Forest, S Ethiopia, documented by Lavrenchenko (2000); range and habitat in Djibouti reported by Pearch et al. (2001); Kock and Künzel (1999) included a detailed map and list of all collection localities covering known range of the species, which is disjunct. No records exist in the Danakil Desert between Djibouti-Sudan and Ethiopia, or in the expansive arid region between Ethiopia and Kenya; whether these gaps are real or an artifact of collection inactivity is unknown. Dor’s (1966) record of cranial fragments, dated to the 11th century from the Judean desert near the Dead Sea, may represent an import, and references to a range in Arabia (Kingdon, 1990) are unsubstantiated by recent collections (Kock and Künzel, 1999). |
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| Offspring: | Synonyms:
aethiopicus (Peters, 1867)
bozasi Oustalet, 1902
hindei Thomas, 1910
ibeanus Thomas, 1910
smithi Rhoads, 1896
testudo Thomas, 1905
thomasi Heller, 1912
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