Thallomys shortridgei Thomas and Hinton, 1923

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 : 669

Thallomys shortridgei Thomas and Hinton, 1923 . Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1923:492.

TYPE LOCALITY: S Africa, NW Cape Prov., Louisvale, S bank of Orange River .

DISTRIBUTION: South Africa; known only from south bank of Orange River from about Upington west to Goodhouse, Little Namaqualand, in NW Cape Prov.; limits unknown.

COMMENTS: Thomas and Hinton's (1923) acute description pointed to a distinctive species distinguished by a diagnostic combination of chromatic and cranial (especially the small bullae) traits. Ellerman (1941) treated shortridgei as a species, its distinction has been recognized by others ( Roberts, 1951; Van Rooyen in De Graff, 1978), and despite recent checklists where it is listed as a subspecies of either T. paedulcus ( Meester et al., 1986) or T. nigricauda ( Skinner and Smithers, 1990) , the name identifies a valid species.