Micaelamys granti (Wroughton 1908)

[Mus] granti Wroughton 1908, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 1: 257.

Type Locality: South Africa, NE Western Cape Province, Deelfontein, north of Richmond, (see Chimimba, 1998:435, for details).

Vernacular Names: Grant's Micaelamys.

Distribution: South Africa, known only from the fynbos, succulent karoo, and nama-Karoo biomes (Mugo et al., 1995) in SC South Africa (the Great Karoo region; Chimimba et al., 1999:508; de Graaff, 1997 w; Skinner and Smithers, 1990:279).

Conservation: IUCN – Least Concern as Aethomys granti .

Discussion: Meester et al. (1986:292) and Chimimba (1998:435) provided historical taxonomic allocations of granti, which ranged from Myomys, through Rattus and Mastomys, and finally to Micaelamys as either genus or subgenus of Aethomys . Reviewed and compared with M. namaquensis, its closest relative, by Skinner and Smithers (1990) and also reviewed by de Graaff (1997 w). Analysis of geographic variation (Chimimba et al., 1998) suggested a clinal pattern (southwesterly-northeasterly) with size of cranium negatively correlated with longitude and positively with latitude. No significant steps in the clinal variation were detected and subspecies were not recognized.