Thallomys nigricauda Thomas, 1882

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 : 668

Thallomys nigricauda Thomas, 1882 . Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882:266.

TYPE LOCALITY: Namibia, Great Namaqualand, Hountop (= Hudup or Hutop) River, west of Gibeon ( Meester et al., 1986) .

DISTRIBUTION: Angola, Namibia, N Cape Prov. of South Africa, Botswana, and SE Zamibia; north and eastern limits unknown.

SYNONYMS: bradfieldi, damarensis , davisi , herero , kalaharicus, leuconoe , molopensis, nitela , quissamae, robertsi .

COMMENTS: T. nigricauda and T. paedulcus are now recognized as occurring in the Southern African Subregion by Skinner and Smithers (1990), who also summarized some of the chromosomal, morphological, and ecological distinctions between the two species. They also suggested that herero and leuconoe may represent samples of T. paedulcus , but the holotypes are examples of T. nigricauda . Morphological and geographic definitions of T. nigricauda are unsatisfactory. Appreciable geographic variation in body size, length of molar row, pelage coloration, and tail pilosity exists among samples and its significance will have to be assessed by critical systematic revision.