Mastomys kollmannspergeri Petter 1957

Mastomys kollmannspergeri Petter 1957, Mammalia, 21: 129.

Type Locality: N Niger, Aïr region, Titintarat (= Tchet-en-Taghat; Dobigny et al., 2002 b), 150 km N Agadez (Petter, 1957), "near the wells of Tedjidda-n-Tesemt" (Rosevear, 1969:423) (= Teguidda-n-Tessoumt; Dobigny et al., 2002 b) .

Vernacular Names: Kollmannsperger's Mastomys.

Synonyms: Mastomys verheyeni Robbins and Van der Straeten 1989 .

Distribution: N Niger (Dobigny et al., 2002 b), NE Nigeria and N Cameroon (Robbins and Van der Straeten, 1989), Chad (Denys et al., 2002), and S Sudan (Volobouev et al., 2001); limits unresolved.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt) as M. verheyeni .

Discussion: Originally described as a subspecies of M. natalensis (Petter, 1957) from N Niger, chromosomal data documented by Dobigny et al. (2002 b) from samples near the type locality of kollmannspergeri exhibit the same configuration as the chromosomal species that Volobouev et al. (2001) identified as MER-2 (2n = 38, FNa = 40-41) from Chad (Denys et al., 2002) and S Sudan, and Dobigny et al. (2002 b) provisionally referred their specimens to M. kollmannspergeri . Robbins and Van der Straeten (1989) named and described the same species as M. verheyeni with a range restricted to the savannas surrounding Lake Chad in NE Nigeria and N Cameroon. It was reviewed under that name by Granjon et al. (1997 b). Conspecificity of verheyeni with M. kollmannspergeri is supported by phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA cytochrome b and nuclear IRBP gene sequences (L. Granjon, in litt., who noted the molecular work was done by E. Lecompte, 2003), as well as morphometric and cytogenetic analyses (Denys et al., 2002). Study of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences places M. kollmannspergeri (reported under verheyeni) as sister to a closely related cluster containing M. coucha, M. huberti, M. natalensis, and M. erythroleucus (Lecompte et al., 2002 b) . Petter’s kollmannspergeri may not be the oldest name for the species. Holotypes of azrek, blainei, and macrolepis (see account of M. erythroleucus for names and dates) from S Sudan may be examples of the same species (C. Denys, in litt., 2002); if so, one of these older names will replace kollmannspergeri (Denys et al., 2002) .