Herpestes naso de Winton, 1901 . Bull. Liverpool Mus., 3:35.

TYPE LOCALITY: " Cameroon River, West Africa" [Cameroon] .

DISTRIBUTION: Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Niger, Tanzania, Zaire.

SYNONYMS: microdon Allen, 1919 .

COMMENTS: Placed in Xenogale by Allen (1919b), and followed by Rosevear (1974) and Ansell (1978). This taxon, and ichneumon, which is generally recognized as its sister taxon (Allen, 1919b; Rosevear, 1974; Hayman, in Sanderson, 1940), can be distinguished principally by proportional differences of the interorbital region (Rosevear, 1974). Hayman (in Sanderson, 1940), Wenzel and Haltenorth (1972), and Coetzee (1977b) did not feel these differences were sufficient to warrant generic distinction, as did Allen (1919b), and Rosevear (1974). Recognition of Xenogale would make Herpestes paraphyletic.