Cricetomys kivuensis Lönnberg 1917

Cricetomys kivuensis Lönnberg 1917, K. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl. Stockholm, 58 (art. 2): 75.

Type Locality: Dem. Rep. Congo, Masisi.

Vernacular Names: Kivu Giant Pouched Rat.

Distribution: Mountains of easternmost Dem. Rep. Congo (Kivu), S Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi; limits unknown.

Discussion: Although Genest-Villard (1967) retained kivuensis as a subspecies of C. emini, she considered its differentiation as marginal. Compared with C. emini, examples of kivuensis are larger, their skulls fully as robust as the biggest C. ansorgei; dorsal color is fuscous gray (not the bright browns of emini) and the underparts are dull grayish-white, weakly demarcated from the dorsum (pure white and cleanly delineated in emini); and fur is long, its texture soft and luxurient (close-cropped and slightly hispid in emini). The union of such disparate morphologies under one species deserves unambiguous demonstration.