Acomys russatus (Wagner, 1840) . Abh. Akad. Wiss. Münchin, 3:195.

TYPE LOCALITY: Egypt, Sinai .

DISTRIBUTION: E Egypt, Sinai, Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

SYNONYMS: aegyptiacus, affinis, harrisoni, lewisi.

COMMENTS: Subgenus Acomys . Qumsiyeh et al. (1986) retained lewisi as a species because although the karyotype of a sample from Jordan was indistinguishable from that of A. russatus, fur color and bacular morphology of lewisi was distinctive (Atallah, 1967). However, based on morphological evidence, lewisi was included in A. russatus by Corbet (1978c), Osborn and Helmy (1980), and Harrison and Bates (1991). This allocation was also supported by genic data (Janecek et al., 1991).