Graphiurus (Graphiurus) kelleni Reuvens 1890

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Gliridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 819-840 : 824

Graphiurus (Graphiurus) kelleni Reuvens 1890

Graphiurus (Graphiurus) kelleni Reuvens 1890 , Notes Leyden Mus., 13: 74.

Type Locality: Angola: Mossamedes district, "Damara-land" (see Hill and Carter, 1941) .

Vernacular Names: Kellen's African Dormouse.

Synonyms: Graphiurus (Graphiurus) ansorgei Dollman 1912 ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) brockmani Dollman 1910 ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) cuanzensis ( Hill and Carter 1937) ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) dollmani Osgood 1910 ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) foxi Dollman 1914 ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) internus Dollman 1912 ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) nanus (De Winton 1896) ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) olga (Thomas 1925) ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) parvus (True 1893) ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) personatus Heller 1911 ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) tasmani ( Roberts 1929) .

Distribution: Savannahs of SubSaharan Africa, excluding Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa, but including: Senegal ( Hubert et al., 1973, as G. murinus ), The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin,? Burkina Faso ( Gautun et al., 1985, as G. murinus ), Nigeria, Mali, Niger ( Dobigny et al., 2002 b), Sudan, N Dem. Rep. Congo ( Verschuren, 1987 –Parc National de la Garamba, as G. lorraineus ), N Uganda ( Heller, 1911, as G. personatus ; Hollister, 1919, as G. personatus ), Kenya ( Hollister, 1919), Ethiopia ( Yalden et al., 1996), Somalia, Tanzania ( Stanley et al., 2002; Swynnerton and Hayman, 1951), Malawi ( Ansell and Dowsett, 1988), Mozambique, Angola ( Hayman, 1963 b; Hill and Carter, 1941), Zambia ( Ansell, 1978, as G. johnstoni ) and Zimbabwe. In W Africa see Grubb et al. (1998) and Rosevear (1969).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as G. kelleni , G. olga , and G. parvus .

Discussion: Subgenus Graphiurus . Schlitter et al. (1985) discussed taxonomic problems associated with the small dormice occurring in savannah woodlands of West, East, and Southern Africa. Holden (1993) provisionally recognized three species: G. kelleni , G. olga and G. parvus . My recent comparisons of museum specimens, including holotypes of all the synonyms listed, and results of preliminary multivariate analyses indicate that only one species of small-bodied African savannah dormouse can be diagnosed solely on the basis of cranial morphology: Analyses showed that olga is morphologically indistinguishable from West and East African parvus , and Angolan and Zambian kelleni cannot be discriminated on the basis of morphometric characters from samples of populations that include parvus and olga .

Gautun et al. (1985) reported G. murinus from the vicinity of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, but based on the distributions and habitat preferences of G. murinus , G. microtis and G. kelleni , the specimen likely represents G. kelleni . Description and comparison of the vocal repertoire of G. kelleni was reported by Hutterer and Peters (2001). Karyotype of Niger sample with 2n = 70 ( Dobigny et al., 2002 b; reported as parvus ). Reviewed by Rossolimo et al. (2001) and Holden (In Press) .