Mystromys albicaudatus (A. Smith, 1834) . S Afr. Quart. J., 2:148.

TYPE LOCALITY: S Africa, E Cape Province, Albany Dist .

DISTRIBUTION: Endemic to southern Africa: Cape Prov., W and N Natal, Orange Free State, and SW and S Transvaal (South Africa), and Swaziland; see map in Skinner and Smithers (1990:297).

SYNONYMS: albipes, fumosus, lanuginosus (see Meester et al., 1986).

COMMENTS: Closest phylogenetic relatives are Mystromys hausleitneri, M. pocockei, and Proodontomys cookei, all extinct and represented by fossils from Pliocene-Pleistocene australopithecine sites in the Transvaal of South Africa (Denys, 1991; Pocock, 1987).