Myomyscus angolensis (Bocage 1890)

[Myomyscus] angolensis (Bocage 1890), J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat. Lisboa, ser. 2, 2: 12.

Type Locality: Angola, Capangombe, interior of Moçâmedes District, 527 m (additional information provided by Crawford-Cabral, 1989 b, 1998) .

Vernacular Names: Angolan Myomyscus.

Synonyms: Myomyscus angolae (Crawford-Cabral 1989) .

Distribution: W Angola, primarily on the Angolan Plateau (Crawford-Cabral, 1998).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as Mastomys angolensis .

Discussion: Our inclusion of this species in Myomyscus is provisional. It has been placed in Rattus (Ellerman, 1941), Myomyscus (or Myomys) (G. M. Allen, 1939; D. H. S. Davis, 1965; Hill and Carter, 1941), Praomys (see references in Crawford-Cabral, 1989 b), or regarded as a species of Mastomys (Crawford-Cabral, 1989 b, 1998; Misonne, 1974). Ansell (1978) and Ellerman et al. (1953) thought it morphologically similar to M. shortridgei, which they treated as a subspecies of M. angolensis . In their review of Mastomys systematics, Granjon et al. (1997 b) transferred angolensis to Myomys and retained shortridgei in Mastomys . Incorporation of M. angolensis in phylogenetic analyses derived from morphological and molecular data is needed to clarify its relationship. Myomyscus angolensis is either sympatric (Hill and Carter, 1941; Crawford-Cabral, 1983, 1998) or altitudinally parapatric (specimens in FMNH from Mt Soque) with Mastomys natalensis in Angola.

In a report devoted to the identity of Bocage’s Mus angolensis, Crawford-Cabral (1989 b) noted that the type series was destroyed by fire in the Lisbon Museum in 1978. According to the original description the specimens represented a species with a tail much longer than head and body, white feet, soft and thick fur, and five pairs of teats, all characters of other species in Myomyscus . Crawford-Cabral considered Angolan specimens collected after 1890 outside of the Capangombe region and identified as angolensis to be another species. He proposed Praomys angolae for this rat and considered it a Mastomys, not an example of Myomyscus . In our view he simply renamed Bocage’s angolensis .