Acomys (Acomys) chudeaui Kollman 1911

Acomys (Acomys) chudeaui Kollman 1911, Abh. Bayer Akad. Wiss. Math. Naturwiss. Kl., 3: 195.

Type Locality: Mauritania, Atar, SW of Biskra.

Vernacular Names: Chudeau's Spiny Mouse.

Distribution: Western Sahara: Recorded from C Morocco (mapped by Aulagnier and Thevenot, 1986, as cahirinus) and W Mauritania (Benazzou, 1983; Le Berre, 1990); geographic limits unresolved.

Discussion: Subgenus Acomys . Usually listed in the synonymy of A. cahirinus (e. g., Musser and Carleton, 1993), but chromosomal data (Benazzou, 1983; 2n = 40 for chudeaui, 2n = 36 for cahirinus) has been used to support species status (Le Berre, 1990; Le Berre and Le Guelte, 1990) as a member of the A. cahirinus-A. dimidiatus group (Benazzou, 1983). Denys et al. (1994) described distinguishing dental differences between A. chudeaui, A. cahirinus, and the Algerian A. seurati, suggesting they reflected differences among species. The precise phylogenetic relationships among A. chudeaui, A. seurati, and A. airensis (in which 2n varies from 40 to 46) require resolution.