HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER MYOMORPHA
--> SUPERFAMILY Muroidea
--> FAMILY Muridae
--> SUBFAMILY Murinae
--> GENUS Micaelamys
SPECIES Micaelamys namaquensis
Author: | A. Smith, 1834. | Citation: | S. Afr. Quart. J., 2: 160. | Common Name: | Namaqua Micaelamys | Type Locality: | South Africa, S Western Cape Province, Little Namaqualand, Cape of Good Hope (restricted to Witwater by Shortridge, 1942). | Distribution: | E Angola (Crawford-Cabral, 1998), South Africa (except parts of Western, Northern, and Eastern Cape provinces, coastal KwaZulu-Natal Province, and Namib Desert; de Graaff, 1997v; Taylor, 1998), Botswana, Zimbabwe, S and C Mozambique (absent from central and coastal regions), S Malawi, and SE Zambia. Range abstracted from Skinner and Smithers (1990:278) and Chimimba et al. (1999:507). | Status: | IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as Aethomys namaquensis. | Comments: | Originally described as a species of Gerbillus (Gerbillinae), subsequently treated as a species of Aethomys (G. M. Allen, 1939), Thallomys (Ellerman, 1941) or Rattus in subgenus Praomys (Ellerman et al., 1953). There is appreciable variation in body size and pelage coloration among geographic samples, but past systematic studies do not recognize subspecies or significant clinal patterns of variation (Chimimba, 1998; Chimimba et al., 1999). A recent intraspecific morphometric analysis across a more comprehensive geographic region in southern Africa suggested recognition of four subspecies (Chimimba, 2001a) in which distributional limits coincide with major phytogeographical zones. Integrity of these subspecific units, however, requires independent testing with molecular data. Non-geographic variation due to sex and age reported by Chimimba and Dippenaar (1994). Of all the species of either Micaelamys or even Aethomys, M. namaquensis has the most extensive geographic distribution and is sympatric with all the other species of Aethomys and Micaelamys occurring in the Southern African Subregion (Chimimba et al., 1999). Reviewed by Meester et al. (1986), Skinner and Smithers (1990), Chimimba (1998), Chimimba et al.(1999), and de Graaff (1997v). |
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| Offspring: | Synonyms:
arborarius Peters, 1852 auricomis De Winton, 1897 avarillus Thomas and Wroughton, 1908 avunculus (Thomas, 1904) calarius Thomas, 1926 capensis Roberts, 1926 centralis Schwann, 1906 drakensbergi Roberts, 1926 epupae Von Lehmann, 1975 grahami Roberts, 1915 klaverensis Roberts, 1926 lechochloides Roberts, 1926 lehocla A. Smith, 1836 longicaudatus Von Lehmann, 1955 monticularis Jameson, 1909 namibensis Roberts, 1946 phippsi Hill and Carter, 1937 siccatus Thomas, 1926 waterbergensis Roberts, 1938
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