Meriones shawi (Duvernoy, 1842) . Mem. Soc. Sci. Nancy, 3:22.

TYPE LOCALITY: Algeria, Oman .

DISTRIBUTION: Mediterranean littoral from Morocco to N Sinai, never found more than about 150 mi inland (Lay and Nadler, 1969, and references therein).

SYNONYMS: albipes, auziensis, crassibulla, grandis, isis, laticeps, longiceps, richardii, savii, sellysii, trouessarti .

COMMENTS: Subgenus Pallasiomys . A distinctive species that ranges mostly north of M. libycus but is sympatric with it in several regions (Lay and Nadler, 1969; Zaime and Pascal, 1988). The distribution maps of Algerian M. shawi and M. libycus in Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska (1991) illustrate the geographic relationships of these species— mostly parapatric, but sympatric near the coast. M. shawi and M. libycus are often confused in museum collections and published reports (see the review by Lay and Nadler, 1969).