Dipodillus (Petteromys) dasyurus (Wagner 1842)

[Dipodillus (Petteromys)] dasyurus (Wagner 1842), Arch. Naturgesch., 8: 20.

Type Locality: Sinai.

Vernacular Names: Wagner's Dipodil.

Synonyms: Dipodillus (Petteromys) dasyroides Nehring 1901; Dipodillus (Petteromys) gallagheri (Harrison 1971); Dipodillus (Petteromys) leosollicitus (Lehmann 1966); Dipodillus (Petteromys) palmyrae (Lehman 1966) .

Distribution: Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Sinai, E desert of Egypt (see Harrison and Bates, 1991); also recorded from Turkey (Yi it et al., 1997).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as Gerbillus dasyurus .

Discussion: Subgenus Petteromys . Review of taxonomy, morphology, and distribution provided by Harrison and Bates (1991). Those authors also listed lixa as a synonym of D. dasyurus, but the holotype, a young animal, has an accessory tympanum and bare-soled hind feet, which is uncharacteristic of D. dasyurus but does suggest alliance with Gerbillus nanus (Lay, 1983) . Egyptian population reviewed by Osborn and Helmy (1980), that on the Sinai Peninsula by Saleh and Basuony (1998), Yemen segment covered by Al-Jumaily (1998). Morphological, chromosomal, and ecological characteristics of the Turkish population documented by Yi it et al., 1997 a), of the Israeli and Jordanian segments by Qumsiyeh (1996) and Mendelssohn and Yom-Tov (1999). Reviewed by Pavlinov et al. (1990). Fossils identified as D. dasyurus have been found at intermittent levels in the early to late Pleistocene of Israel (Tchernov, 1986, 1992, 1994, and references cited in those reports).