Mus (Nannomys) indutus Thomas 1910

Mus (Nannomys) indutus Thomas 1910, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 5: 89.

Type Locality: N South Africa, Northern Cape Province, Molopo River, west of Morokwen.

Vernacular Names: Desert Pygmy Mouse.

Synonyms: Mus (Nannomys) deserti (Thomas 1912); Mus (Nannomys) pretoriae (Roberts 1926); Mus (Nannomys) valschensis (Roberts 1926) .

Distribution: N South Africa, W Zimbabwe, Botswana, C and N Namibia (de Graaff, 1997 n:143; Skinner and Smithers, 1990:264); also S Angola (Crawford-Cabral, 1998).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Nannomys . Skinner and Smithers (1990) and Meester et al. (1986) discussed the morphological and chromosomal distinctions between M. indutus and M. minutoides . Skinner and Smithers (1990) also summarized biological data, and Meester et al. (1986) provided citations for synonyms. Definition of this species is ambiguous (Meester et al., 1986; Skinner and Smithers, 1990). Meester et al. (1986) included the Angolan sybilla in M. indutus, but our study of the holotype revealed that sybilla belongs with M. minutoides .