Otomys tropicalis Thomas, 1902

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 681

Otomys tropicalis Thomas, 1902 . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 10:314.

TYPE LOCALITY: Kenya, west slope of Mt. Kenya, 3000 m .

DISTRIBUTION: Irregular highland distribution in W Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and bordering Zaire; outlying populations on Mount Cameroon.

SYNONYMS: burtoni , dollmani , elgonis, faradjius, ghigii, nubilus, ruberculus, vivax , vulcanicus.

COMMENTS: Regarded as conspecific with O. irroratus by Bohmann (1952) and accordingly recognized in regional treatments ( Delany, 1975; Kingdon, 1974); however, others have maintained the southern African form irroratus as specifically distinct from eastern African tropicalis ( De Graaff, 1981; Meester et al., 1986; Misonne, 1974). Even so, the taxa herein assembled under tropicalis (after Misonne, 1974) remain a composite of two or more species, whose definition and range will require careful revisionary work, involving simultaneous attention to possible relationships with species-group taxa now lumped under O. typus (see next account).