Dendromus mesomelas Brants, 1827 . Het. Geslacht der Muizen, p. 122.

TYPE LOCALITY: South Africa, E Cape Prov., Sunday's River, east of Port Elizabeth .

DISTRIBUTION: Discontinuous ranges in South Africa (SW Cape Prov. east to Natal and E Transvaal), C Mozambique, extreme NE Zambia, N Botswana (see Map in Skinner and Smithers, 1990:307), extreme NW and NE Zaire (Ansell, 1978), highlands of N and S Malawi (Ansell and Dowsett, 1988), mountains of SW (Rungwe) and EC (Uluguru) Tanzania, and SE Zaire (Marungu); extent of range unresolved.

SYNONYMS: ayresi, hintoni, major, nyasae, pumilio, typicus, typus .

COMMENTS: We treat some of the names usually included in D. mesomelas (see Misonne, 1974) as distinct species (see accounts of insignis, kivu, oreas, and vernayi). Judged by our study of specimens, samples from SE Zaire and SW Tanzania are morphologically similar to series of D. kivu, and the relationship among these and samples of true mesomelas has to be resolved by critical systematic revision. We include major, which was described as a subspecis of D. mesomelas (see St. Leger, 1930), but its relationships should be reexamined because of its large body size.