Gerbillus (Gerbillus) latastei Thomas and Trouessart 1903

Gerbillus (Gerbillus) latastei Thomas and Trouessart 1903, Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr., 28: 172.

Type Locality: Tunisia, Kebili.

Vernacular Names: Lataste's Gerbil.

Synonyms: Gerbillus (Gerbillus) aureus Setzer 1956; Gerbillus (Gerbillus) favillus Setzer 1956; Gerbillus (Gerbillus) nalutensis Ranck 1968 .

Distribution: Tunisia and Libya (Lay, 1983, suspected the species occurs in Algeria but Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska, 1991, did not record it from there).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Gerbillus . The three synonyms were definitely merged with G. latastei by Cockrum (1977), who suggested that bonhotei, dunni, perpallidus, riggenbachi, and rosalinda are possible synonyms but admitted that more material, particularly chromosomal data, is needed to resolve their relationships. Lay (1983) discussed the basis for considering each of these five as separate species. Chromosomal traits (2n = 74, FN = 94-97) of Tunisian sample described by Chetoui et al. (2002). The Libyan populations (under G. aureus) were reviewed by Ranck (1968). Reviewed by Pavlinov et al. (1990).