Mammal Species of the World Logo

 

HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA  --> ORDER RODENTIA  --> SUBORDER MYOMORPHA  --> SUPERFAMILY Muroidea  --> FAMILY Muridae  --> SUBFAMILY Murinae  --> GENUS Mylomys

SPECIES Mylomys dybowskii

Author:Pousargues, 1893.
Citation:Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr., 18: 163.
Common Name:Common Mylomys
Type Locality:Central African Republic, Kemo River.
Distribution:Guinea (Mt Nimba), Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana (Grubb et al., 1998), S Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, W, N and E Dem. Rep. Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania (Swynnerton and Hayman, 1951), Kenya (Hollister, 1919), Uganda (Delany, 1975), and S Sudan (Setzer, 1958); abstracted from Rosevear (1969), Misonne (1974), many faunal reports, and specimens examined in AMNH, BMNH, FMNH, and USNM.
Status:IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).
Comments:Hatt (1940a) noted that the cotypes of dybowskii are examples of Mylomys, not Pelomys under which the name had been listed (Ellerman, 1941), and selected a lectotype. The identity was verified by F. Petter (1962b), who also thought there were two species in the genus, M. dybowskii and the West African M. lowei, named by Hayman (1935) as a subspecies of M. cuninghamei. Rosevear (1969) followed F. Petter in recognizing M. lowei and in turn was followed by Grubb et al. (1998). Hayman (1935:934), however, regarded all forms to be part of a single species: "In considering what value to place on this Ashanti form [lowei] it has seemed best to regard all the known Mylomys as a subspecies of the original cuninghamei Thos. From that small and rather dark form, through the middle-sized lutescens and christyi to the large brightly-coloured races roosevelti, alberti, and the present form, the differences lie chiefly in comparative size and intensity of colouring. In my opinion the characters of lowei are not sufficient to justify full specific differentiation." Significance of geographic variation in chromatic and morphological traits has yet to be assessed by critical systematic revision; whether the genus is monotypic, contains the two species listed here, or consists of more than two is unresolved. Chromosomal data available for samples from Central African Republic (Matthey, 1970) and Mt Nimba (Guinea; Gautun et al., 1986).
EXPORT AS CSV Back to search results

Offspring:

Synonyms:

    alberti Thomas, 1915
    christyi Thomas, 1917
    cuninghamei Thomas, 1906
    lowei Hayman, 1935
    lutescens Thomas, 1915
    massaicus Lönnberg, 1916
    rex (Thomas, 1906)
    richardi Hayman, 1939
    roosevelti (Heller, 1910)

  Bucknell Home Page   Biology Department Home Page

 

©Bucknell Univesity All Rights Reserved
Comments and questions to dreeder@bucknell.edu