Praomys hartwigi Eisentraut 1968

Praomys hartwigi Eisentraut 1968, Bonn. Zool. Beitr., Vol. 19: 11-Aug.

Type Locality: Cameroon, Bamenda Plateau, Mt Oku, Lake Oku, 2100 m (coordinates provided by Ansell, 1989:56).

Vernacular Names: Hartwig's Praomys.

Distribution: Recorded only in isolated mountain forests along the mountain chain on the Bamenda Plateau in W Cameroon (Mt Bambuto, Mt Lefo and Mt Oku; Hutterer et al., 1992 a; Van der Straeten, in litt., 1994).

Conservation: IUCN – Endangered.

Discussion: Lecompte et al. (1999) regarded P. hartwigi as a member of the P. tullbergi complex, which has been confirmed by phylogenetic analyses of morphological traits (Lecompte et al., 2002 a) and complete mtDNA cytochrome b sequences (Lecompte et al., 2002 b). Fülling (1992) contrasted morphology of palatal ridges between samples of P. hartwigi (2 + 7 = 9) and P. jacksoni (2 + 5 = 7) collected from slopes of Mt Oku. Morphologically and phylogenetically allied to P. obscurus (see that account), which is separated from P. hartwigi by about 100 km in the Gotel Mtns on the Mambilla Plateau to the northeast of the Bamenda Plateau (Hutterer et al., 1992 a).