Myomys albipes (Rüppell, 1842)

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 : 630

Myomys albipes (Rüppell, 1842) . Mus. Senckenberg., 3:107.

TYPE LOCALITY: Ethiopia, Massawa .

DISTRIBUTION: Ethiopia; endemic to Ethiopian Plateau between 1500-3300 m ( Yalden et al., 1976; Van der Straeten and Dieterlen, 1983).

SYNONYMS: rufidorsalis alettensis, rufidorsalis ankoberensis, leucopus , albipes var. minor (see Yalden et al., 1976).

COMMENTS: Usually listed as either a species of Myomys ( Allen, 1939) or Praomys (e.g., Yalden et al., 1976). Morphometric traits related albipes closely to species of Stenocephalemys and what was described as Praomys ruppi ( Van der Straeten and Dieterlen, 1983). Furthermore, qualitative external, cranial (see figure 5 in Rupp, 1980), and molar (see figures in Misonne, 1969) traits of albipes are more similar to species of Stenocephalemys than to most species in Myomys. The phylogenetic significance of this morphologically annectant relationship of M. albipes between other Myomys and Stenocephalemys needs to be assessed by taxonomic revision of both groups. The Sudanese specimens reported by Setzer (1956) as P. albipes fuscirostris are not M. albipes.