Hybomys (Hybomys) badius Osgood 1936

Hybomys (Hybomys) badius Osgood 1936, Zool. Ser. Field Mus . Nat. Hist., 20: 254.

Type Locality: Cameroon, southwest slope Mt Cameroon, 5800 ft (1768 m).

Vernacular Names: Cameroon Highland Hybomys.

Synonyms: Hybomys (Hybomys) eisentrauti Van der Straeten and Hutterer 1986 .

Distribution: Mt Cameroon and Mtns Lefo and Oku in the Bamenda-Banso highlands, W Cameroon.

Conservation: IUCN – Endangered as H. eisentrauti .

Discussion: Subgenus Hybomys . We use badius as the oldest name for eisentrauti, described by Van der Straeten and Hutterer (1986), whose definition is based mostly on its geographic separation from H. lunaris, as Van der Straeten et al. (1986) perceived that species, not on differentiating character data. Their multivariate analysis revealed three clusters of specimen scores, one representing H. basilii from Bioko, another " H. lunaris " from E Dem. Rep. Congo and Rwanda (not true lunaris; see below), and a third H. univittatus collected in S Cameroon. Specimens of eisentrauti lie close to examples of badius and both sets of scores fall within their " H. lunaris . " Curiously and confusingly, they treated Osgood’s badius as a subspecies of H. univittatus, even though those specimen scores are well separated from the H. univittatus cluster. The analysis of Van der Straeten and Hutterer provides no clearcut basis for recognition of the populations on Mt Cameroon ( badius) as specifically distinct from those on Mt Lefo and Mt Oku ( eisentrauti). Assessing the level of relationship between populations from the E margin of the Central African Forest Block, called " lunaris," and those from the W Cameroon highlands, H. badius (including eisentrauti), will require a fresh systematic review of the H. univittatus complex (see below).