Psammomys vexillaris Thomas 1925

Psammomys vexillaris Thomas 1925, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 16: 198.

Type Locality: Libya, Tripolitania Province, Bu Ngem (Bondjem).

Vernacular Names: Lesser Sand Rat.

Synonyms: Psammomys edusa Thomas 1925 .

Distribution: Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Sometimes included in P. obesus (Corbet, 1978 c; Pavlinov et al., 1990, 1995 a) but Ranck (1968) regarded it as a separate species. Cockrum et al. (1977) enumerated the morphological and chromosomal traits distinguishing the two. Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska (1991) did not recognize this species in Algeria and discussed only P. obesus . We recognize vexillaris as distinct pending a new look at geographic variation in morphological, chromosomal, and molecular traits among populations of Psammomys .