Mastomys pernanus (Kershaw, 1921)

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 : 611

Mastomys pernanus (Kershaw, 1921) . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 8:568.

TYPE LOCALITY: SW Kenya, Amala (Mara) River; see Allen (1939:406) and Misonne and Verschuren (1964:655) for details .

DISTRIBUTION: Published records are from SW Kenya, NW Tanzania, and Rwanda ( Misonne and Verschuren, 1964); limits are unknown.

COMMENTS: Ellerman (1941) listed pernanus as a distinctive species of Rattus in the subgenus Mastomys , but earlier Allen (1939) had treated it as a species of Myomys . Robbins and Van der Straeten (1989) claimed this a possibility. Misonne and Verschuren (1964, 1966b), however, discussed the problem and concluded that pernanus should be associated with Mastomys . Either postulated generic association is unsupported by critical analyses of comparative data so the allocation of pernanus remains clouded. The species is known by very few specimens ( Misonne and Verschuren, 1964; 114439 in the American Museum of Natural History is from NW Tanzania).