Thallomys nigricauda (Thomas 1882)

[Mus] nigricauda Thomas 1882, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882: 266.

Type Locality: Namibia, Great Namaqualand, Hountop (= Hudup or Hutop) River, west of Gibeon (Meester et al., 1986).

Vernacular Names: Black-tailed Thallomys.

Synonyms: Thallomys bradfieldi Roberts 1933; Thallomys damarensis (De Winton 1897); Thallomys davisi Lundholm 1955; Thallomys herero Thomas 1926; Thallomys kalaharicus (Dollman 1911); Thallomys leuconoe Thomas 1926; Thallomys molopensis Roberts 1933; Thallomys nitela Thomas and Hinton 1923; Thallomys quissamae F. Petter and Beaufort 1960; Thallomys robertsi (Ellerman, Morrison-Scott, and Hayman 1953) .

Distribution: W and S Angola, Namibia, N South Africa, Zimbabwe, N Botswana, and SE Zambia; northern and eastern limits unknown. The range described here is mapped by Taylor et al. (1995), who also identified a skull from Kenya as possibly an example of T. nigricauda .

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Thallomys nigricauda and T. paedulcus are now recognized as occurring in the Southern African Subregion by Skinner and Smithers (1990), who also summarized some of the chromosomal, morphological, and ecological distinctions between the two species. They also suggested that herero and leuconoe may represent samples of T. paedulcus, but we examined the holotypes and they are examples of T. nigricauda . Musser and Carleton (1993:669) wrote that "Morphological and geographic definitions of T. nigricauda are unsatisfactory. Appreciable geographic variation in body size, length of molar row, pelage coloration, and tail pilosity exists among samples and its significance will have to be assessed by critical systematic revision." Results of such a study are presented by Taylor et al. (1995), who employed multivariate analyses of southern African samples already identified by chromosomal traits as either T. nigricauda (2n = 47-50) or T. paedulcus (2n = 43-47) and documented morphometric traits distinguishing samples of the two species, provided clearer resolution of their geographic distributions, and demonstrated broad sympatry in ranges. Crawford-Cabral (1998) reviewed and mapped Angolan records, and Taylor (1998) discussed specimens from KwaZulu-Natal.