Lophiomys imhausi Milne-Edwards 1867

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 1047

Lophiomys imhausi Milne-Edwards 1867

Lophiomys imhausi Milne-Edwards 1867 , L'Institut, Paris, 35: 46.

Type Locality: Somalia ("Probably from African coast opposite Aden, where it was purchased," G. M. Allen, 1939:315; also see Thomas, 1910 c:222) .

Vernacular Names: Maned Rat.

Synonyms: Lophiomys aethiopicus (Peters 1867) ; Lophiomys bozasi Oustalet 1902 ; Lophiomys hindei Thomas 1910 ; Lophiomys ibeanus Thomas 1910 ; Lophiomys smithi Rhoads 1896 ; Lophiomys testudo Thomas 1905 ; Lophiomys thomasi Heller 1912 .

Distribution: E Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, NE Uganda, and W Tanzania (Kock and Künzel, 1999); sea level to 3300 m in Ethiopia ( Yalden et al., 1976), in lowland forests in Djibouti ( Pearch et al., 2001), but apparently restricted to mountain forest in Kenya and Uganda ( Delany, 1975; Clausnitzer and Kityo, 2001; Hollister, 1919).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Thomas (1910 c) recognized four species of Lophiomys , but Ellerman (1940:636) noted that "Thomas evidently came to the conclusion that all the East African ‘species’ were one, as there is a note in his tracts to this effect. I am inclined to go further and think that until more material comes to hand all forms must be treated as races of the earliest name imhausi ." G. M. Allen (1939:315) independently noted that "All the recognizable forms are doubtless races of L. imhausi ." Ellerman’s view prevails today and has yet to be tested by careful taxonomic revision. Distribution in the isolated Harenna Forest, S Ethiopia, documented by Lavrenchenko (2000); range and habitat in Djibouti reported by Pearch et al. (2001); Kock and Künzel (1999) included a detailed map and list of all collection localities covering known range of the species, which is disjunct. No records exist in the Danakil Desert between Djibouti-Sudan and Ethiopia, or in the expansive arid region between Ethiopia and Kenya; whether these gaps are real or an artifact of collection inactivity is unknown. Dor’s (1966) record of cranial fragments, dated to the 11th century from the Judean desert near the Dead Sea, may represent an import, and references to a range in Arabia ( Kingdon, 1990) are unsubstantiated by recent collections (Kock and Künzel, 1999).