Aethomys ineptus (Thomas and Wroughton 1908)

[Aethomys] ineptus (Thomas and Wroughton 1908), Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1908: 546.

Type Locality: Mozambique, Zambezi River, Tette (= Tete); see Chimimba (1998:432) for details.

Vernacular Names: Tete Veld Aethomys.

Synonyms: Aethomys fouriei Roberts 1946; Aethomys harei Roberts 1946; Aethomys magalakuini Roberts 1926; Aethomys pretoriae (Roberts 1913); Aethomys tongensis Roberts 1931; Aethomys tzaneenensis Jameson 1909 .

Distribution: Documented from NE South Africa (Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North West, Limpopo, Northern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal Provs.; from about 25E30' S in the north southward to the Durban region) and S Mozambique; distribution in this region unresolved (Linzey et al., 2003).

Discussion: Separation of A. ineptus from A. chrysophilus documented by Chimimba (1998), Chimimba et al. (1999), and Linzey et al. (2003). Geographic range of A. ineptus was thought to incorporate parts of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe (Chimimba, 1998; Chimimba et al., 1999; Taylor, 2000 b), but recent documentation of positively identified specimens indicates its distribution to be largely parapatric with that of A. chrysophilus, which occurs in South Africa only along the NE margin approximating the Limpopo River drainage, but has an extensive range northward to SE Kenya (Linzey et al., 2003). Redefinition of A. ineptus by Linzey et al. (2003) prompts a reevaluation of the clinal pattern of cranial size within the species proposed by Chimimba (2001 b). See account of A. chrysophilus .