Thallomys shortridgei Thomas and Hinton 1923

Thallomys shortridgei Thomas and Hinton 1923, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1923: 492.

Type Locality: South Africa, Western Cape Province, Louisvale, S bank of Orange River.

Vernacular Names: Shortridge's Thallomys.

Distribution: South Africa; known only from south bank of Orange River from about Upington west to Goodhouse, Little Namaqualand, in Western Cape Province; limits unknown.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Thomas and Hinton's (1923 b) acute description points to a distinctive species distinguished by a diagnostic combination of chromatic and cranial traits (especially the small bullae). Ellerman (1941) treated shortridgei as a species, its distinction has been recognized by others (Musser and Carleton, 1993; Roberts, 1951; Van Rooyen in De Graff, 1978), and despite recent checklists where it is listed as a subspecies of either T. paedulcus (Meester et al., 1986) or T. nigricauda (Skinner and Smithers, 1990), the name identifies a valid species (our study of the holotype and specimens in MCZ).