Gerbillus (Gerbillus) agag Thomas 1903

Gerbillus (Gerbillus) agag Thomas 1903, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1903: 296.

Type Locality: Sudan, W Kordofan, Agageh Wells.

Vernacular Names: Agag Gerbil.

Synonyms: Gerbillus (Gerbillus) cosensi Dollman 1914; Gerbillus (Gerbillus) dalloni Heim de Balsac 1936; Gerbillus (Gerbillus) maradius Kock 1978 .

Distribution: Mali, N Nigeria, and Niger to Chad, Sudan and Kenya.

Conservation: IUCN – Critically Endangered as G. cosensis and G. dalloni, Lower Risk (lc) as G. agag .

Discussion: Subgenus Gerbillus . Taxa listed above as synonyms have been associated with G. agag (Kock, 1978; Pavlinov et al., 1990; F. Peter, 1975 b), but Lay (1983) found the limits of this species impossible to define based on published analyses. He regarded it as monotypic pending systematic revision. The taxon dalloni was united with G. agag by F. Petter (1975 b) without supporting documentation, "... but the type localities are separated by more than 2300 km " (Lay, 1983:340), and dalloni should "... be regarded as a valid species pending revision." Although F. Petter (1975 b;9) included cosensi as a synonym of G. agag, he also noted it "could be a valid species." Kock (1978) described maradius as a subspecies of G. agag . The morphological, chromosomal, molecular, and geographic limits of G. agag clearly require resolution but until then we group together the taxa treated as species by Lay (1983), an arrangement found also in Pavlinov et al. (1990).