Graphiurus (Graphiurus) lorraineus Dollman 1910

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) lorraineus Dollman 1910

Graphiurus (Graphiurus) lorraineus Dollman 1910 , Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 5: 285.

Type Locality: Dem. Rep. Congo, Welle (Uele) River, Molegbwe, south of Setema Rapids .

Vernacular Names: Lorraine's African Dormouse.

Synonyms: Graphiurus (Graphiurus) haedulus Dollman 1912 ; Graphiurus (Graphiurus) spurrelli Dollman 1912 .

Distribution: W and C Africa: Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia ( Kuhn, 1965), Côte d’Ivoire ( Aellen, 1965; Mt Nimba Reserve see Heim de Balsac and Lamotte, 1958), Ghana ( Decher and Bahian, 1999), Nigeria ( Happold, 1987), Cameroon ( Eisentraut, 1973; Robbins and Schlitter, 1981; Schlitter et al., 1985), Central African Republic, Bioko ( Eisentraut, 1973), Gabon, Republic of Congo ( Dowsett and Granjon, 1991), N Angola ( Hayman, 1963 b), Dem. Rep. Congo ( Hatt, 1940 a; Petter, 1967 a; Verheyen and Verschuren, 1966), and N Zambia ( Ansell, 1978). See Grubb et al. (1998) and Rosevear (1969) for W Africa reviews.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Graphiurus . Schlitter et al. (1985) discussed The Gambia specimens (identified by them as G. lorraineus ) and their possible synonymy with G. coupeii ( Cuvier, 1822) described from Senegal. Following Schlitter et al. (1985), Holden (1993) tentatively included "perhaps Gambia " in the distribution of G. lorraineus , but the Gambia specimens have been reidentified as G. kelleni ( cf. parvus ) ( Grubb et al., 1998). I examined the holotype of coupeii (in MNHN), a stuffed skin mounted in live pose, and it appears too large for G. kelleni , unless the skin was overstuffed. The specimen resembles West African populations of G. lorraineus , but G. crassicaudatus cannot be ruled out because distinguishing these two species is difficult using only skin characters. Accurate identification to species is elusive using only the skin, but samples taken the holotype for molecular analyses might allow identification.

Hubert et al. (1973) reported G. " murinus " (presumably cf. spurrelli ) from Senegal, caught in wooded savanna. They did not describe the specimen and provided no measurements, so its identification is uncertain. Other specimens from Senegal in collections of natural history museums in Bonn, Brussels, and Paris that I examined appear to represent G. kelleni , but these examples consist of a tattered adult skin, juveniles, and skull fragments, and are difficult to allocate with certainty. The western distributional limit for G. lorraineus is therefore Sierra Leone, and a series of specimens from Seredou, Guinea (in MNHN), also appear to represent this species. Morphological data and comparison with similar species given by Holden (1996 b) and Robbins and Schlitter (1981). Reviewed by Rossolimo et al. (2001) and Holden (In Press). See comments under G. kelleni and G. murinus .