Aethomys thomasi (de Winton 1897)

[Aethomys] thomasi (de Winton 1897), Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, 20: 327.

Type Locality: Angola, Galanga.

Vernacular Names: Thomas's Aethomys.

Distribution: Endemic to Central Plateau of Angola; see Crawford-Cabral, 1999:190).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: A morphologically distinctive Angolan endemic related to A. kaiseri and the "eastern African A. hindei-A. medicatus complex of species" (Crawford-Cabral, 1999:179). Although Crawford-Cabral (1986) suspected A. kaiseri to overlap with A. thomasi in the central highlands, he has recently shown the two species to have parapatric distributions in C Angola (Crawford-Cabral, 1999), and outlined an hypothesis describing origin of A. thomasi within the context of zoogeographic origins and current distributions for other members of the A. kaiseri complex (Crawford-Cabral, 1999:191).