Mastomys erythroleucus (Temminck, 1853) . Esquisses Zool. sur la Côte de Guine, p. 160.

TYPE LOCALITY: Guinea .

DISTRIBUTION: Morocco, occurs also from Gambia and Senegal eastward through W Africa to S Ethiopia and Somalia, and south through E Africa to E Zaire ( Kivu Dist) and Burundi; southern limits in E Africa unresolved.

COMMENTS: Chromosomal (2N=38, FN=52) and electrophoretic data clearly set this species apart from other Mastomys with which it occurs (see Duplantier et al. 1990a, b, and references therein); it is sympatric with M. hildebrandtii (called huberti in the reference) and what might be M. natalensis in Senegal (Duplantier et al., 1990a).