Otomys fortior Thomas, 1906a

Taylor, Peter J., Lavrenchenko, Leonid A., Carleton, Michael D., Verheyen, Erik, Bennett, Nigel C., Oosthuizen, Carel J. & Maree, Sarita, 2011, Specific limits and emerging diversity patterns in East African populations of laminate-toothed rats, genus Otomys (Muridae: Murinae: Otomyini): Revision of the Otomys typus complex 3024, Zootaxa 3024 (1), pp. 1-66 : 45

Otomys fortior Thomas, 1906a

Otomys typus fortior ; Thomas, 1906a:302 (type locality— Ethiopia, Kaffa, Charada Forest, 6000 ft [1829 m]; holotype — BMNH 6.11.1.29); Allen, 1939:348 (listed as valid subspecies); Ellerman, 1941:321 (listed as valid subspecies); Bohmann, 1952:45 (taxonomic revision, retained as valid subspecies).

Otomys fortior ; Dollman, 1915:170 (taxonomic revision, elevation to species).

Otomys typus [ fortior ]; Misonne, 1974:33 (listed in synonymy without indication of rank); Yalden et al., 1976:56 (faunal work, listed in synonymy without indication of rank); Musser & Carleton, 1993:682 , 2005:1530 (listed in synonymy without indication of rank).

Distribution. Restricted to montane evergreen forests in the southwestern regions of Ethiopia (see OTU 2 in Fig. 1a ). Although specimens from Jimma are assigned provisionally to O. fortior based on geographic and ecological proximity, we note that morphometrically this series is characterized by large cranial size making them comparable with specimens from “Sp. C” from the Lake Tana region of central Ethiopia.

Specimens examined. ETHIOPIA: Kaffa, Charada Forest, 6,000 ft (1828.8 m) ( BMNH 6.11.1.29); Beletta Forest ( ZMMU 164960–164965 , 166072 ) ; Sheko Forest ( ZMMU 167310 ) ; Oromiya, Jimma , 1750 m ( USNM 515058–515064 , 516317 , 516507 ) ; Inegawa Forest , 20 km N of Tepi, 2340 m ( ZMMU 181665–181667 ) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of east African montane and alpine zones showing distribution of type localities (large, open labeled squares) of forms previously attributed to (a) Otomys typus s. l. and (b) O. tropicalis s. l. Closed squares represent Museum cranial material examined. Circles enclosed localities assigned to OTU's for this study (in Ethiopia these represent hypothesized taxa based on cytogenetic, molecular and morphological data); numbers indicate OTU numbers in Table 1. Arrows indicate localities from which cytochrome-b sequences were available for this study. The asterisk indicates material from a specimen of uncertain identity assigned to cf. sungae.