Hystrix africaeaustralis Peters, 1852

Mori, Emiliano, Sogliani, Davide, Senini, Caterina, Laurenzi, Alessandro, Viano, Andrea Vi- & Cianferoni, Fabio, 2021, Subspecific taxonomy of African porcupines Hystrix spp.: is there anything beyond the species level?, Zootaxa 5047 (5), pp. 501-519 : 510-512

Hystrix africaeaustralis Peters, 1852

Hystrix cristata auct. nec Linnaeus: e.g., Smuts (1832: 50); see W. Sclater (1901).

Hystrix Africae australis Peters, 1852: 170. Type /s: STS: 1 young female and 1 adult female (not known if preserved). Type locality: “[ Mozambique,] Querimba coast” (young) and “[ Mozambique,] Tette” (adult), “a 11° ad 17° Lat. austr.”; restricted to “Querimba coast: i. e., that part of the coast of Mozambique extending for about 100 miles south of the mouth of the Rovuma River” by Moreau et al. (1946: 430). Repository: unknown.

“ Hystrix capensis Gr. ”. Nomen dubium (see discussion below). Syn. W. Sclater (1901: 89).

Hystrix stegmanni F. Müller, 1910a: 186 . Type /s: STS: 11 skulls (and about 6 associated skins). Type locality: Rwanda, Gisenyi (northeast of Lake Kivu) – “[ Deutsch-Ostafrika,] Kissenji im Nordosten des Kivusees”. Repository: ZMB. Downgraded to subspecies of H. africaeaustralis by Mohr (1965). Syn. Corbet & Jones (1965: 295).

Hystrix africae-australis prittwitzi F. Müller, 1910b: 311 . Type /s: HT: skull. Type locality: Tanzania, Tabora “[ Deutsch-Ostafrika,] Tabora ”. Repository: ZMB. Syn. Misonne (1974: 8).

Hystrix africae-australis zuluensis Roberts, 1936: 240 . Type /s: HT: old specimen (“White Umfolosi River, Zululand”); PTS: 1 adult specimen (White Umfolosi River, Zululand”), 1 adult and 1 young adult (“Rustenburg”), 1 young adult (“Waterfall, Albany District”); the unspecified number of younger skulls from “various localities” cannot be considered as part of the type series (new statement: this work). Type locality South Africa, Zululand, White Umfolozi River – “White Umfolosi River, Zululand”. Repository: unknown. Syn. Ellerman et al. (1954: 237).

Hystrix africaeaustralis Peters, 1852

Peters (1852: 170) described this species naming it “ Hystrix Africae australis ” from two widely separated localities in Mozambique: “Querimba” and “Tette”. Moreau et al. (1946: 430) restricted the type locality to the first mentioned locality name: the Querimba coast, thus “that part of the coast of Mozambique extending for about 100 miles south of the mouth of the Rovuma River”. However, to include the area of current “Quirimbas” National Park it should be better to extend this part of the coast for at least 200 miles (more than 320 km).

“ Hystrix capensis Gr. ”

Grill (1860: 9, 19) listed this name “ Hystrix capensis Gr. ” without any description associated. He merely wrote that the Swedish zoologist and explorer Johan Fredrik Victorin does not seem to have seen this animal alive, but of a dead specimen, which he found at Saltriver near Knysna (October 23 [1954]), he has brought home the skull” [translated from Swedish].

In a following contribution, Grill (1863) reported the notes by J.F. Victorin who wrote that at Saltriver (the same locality of the first mentioned record) he “found a dead porcupine ( Hystrix capensis ), and, though the animal smelled disgustingly, however, [he] took off the skull and cleaned that for [his] collection” [translated from Swedish].

This name has been reported by some subsequent authors without authorship (e.g., Leche 1883) or attributed to “Grill, 1958” (correct year would be however 1960) as synonym (without further explanation) of H. africaeaustralis Peters, 1852 (e.g., Sclater 1901; Allen 1939; Ellerman 1940; Ellerman et al. 1954; Maguire 1976; Woods & Kilpatrick 2005; Barthelmess 2006).

However, Grill (1860) clearly indicated and described the new species in the work and specified them also in the introduction (i.e., Rhinolophus auritus Vict. [=Victorin, 1860] and Delphinus Victorini nobis [ D. victorini Grill, 1860 ]). Therefore, he possibly described this taxon in a previous work (before October 23, 1954 when J.F. Victorin wrote his zoological notes during his journey in the Cape region) or it has been described by another author abbreviated as “Gr.”. Despite the attempts, however, we have not been able to find it and thus we listed this name as nomen dubium. If instead it will be proved that this name is attributable to Grill (1860) who did not provide a description, it will have to be considered as nomen nudum. It is interesting to note that Cuvier (1823) mentioned “le porc-épic du Cap de Bonne-Espérance” that he states is different from H. cristata Linneaus ; however, without any description or latin name.

In any case, no reason exist to consider this taxon as distinct from H. africaeaustralis since the specimens from southern Africa in the phylogenetic tree are clustered together ( Fig. 3 ).

Hystrix stegmanni F. Müller, 1910

In the description of this new taxon, Müller (1910: 186) states that it is most similar to H. galeata ambigua Lönnberg, 1908 and H. africaeaustralis Peters, 1852 but “shows essentially different peculiarities of both” (i.e., measurements and details of the skull).

Corbet & Jones (1965) studying topotypical specimens, found that these are intermediate between H. cristata Linnaeus, 1758 and H. africaeaustralis for some features, but for several others they match well with H. africaeaustralis . Therefore, they synonymized H. stegmanni with H. africaeaustralis , but they added also they did not express opinion as a possible validity of this taxon at subspecific level ( Corbet & Jones 1965: 295).

The type locality, in the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu, is where ranges of H. cristata and H. africaeaustralis seem to meet (see Mohr 1965; Trucchi & Sbordoni 2009) and further research should be useful to deepen if hybrid specimens exist (see Mohr 1965). However, we believe that no reasons exist to consider this taxon as distinct from the two currently valid species.

Hystrix africaeaustralis prittwitzi F. Müller, 1910

Soon after, Müller found some minor differences in the skull of a specimen from Tabora, in present day Tanzania, and described a new taxon close to H. africaeaustralis Peters, 1852 , placing it as a subspecies.

In particular, he observed a different development of some skull bones: i.e., nasal process of premaxilla andzygomatic (see Müller 1910b: 313 for details).

Corbet & Jones (1965) showed variability in these features among different populations, but they did not deal with subspecies. Misonne (1974: 8) included this taxon under H. africaeaustralis , but without further explanation, and this line has been followed until today considering it a synonym (e.g., Meester et al. 1986, Woods & Kilpatrick 2005, Happold 2013).

We agree with the view since the variability evidenced by Corbet & Jones (1965). This population is probably only an extreme one in the range of the species and it is quite obvious that differences can emerge from comparison with more southern populations.

Hystrix africaeaustralis zuluensis Roberts, 1936

Roberts (1936: 240) described this subspecies of H. africaeaustralis Peters, 1852 based on specimens “having a narrower and less swollen muzzle when viewed from above”.

We agree with Ellerman et al. (1954: 237) who synonymized this taxon under H. africaeaustralis Peters, 1852 (without further explanation), since it appears very likely these features fall in the variability of the species (populations at extreme of range) and because both mtDNA and nuclear DNA analyses showed all the specimens from Southern Africa clustered together ( Trucchi & Sbordoni 2009; Trucchi et al. 2016). For completeness, Woods & Kilpatrick (2005) recognized this subspecies, but soon after Barthelmess (2006) returned to consider it as synonym of H. africaeaustralis .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Maximum-likelihood trees on mtDNA sequences of (a) cytochrome-b and (b) D-loop of Hystrix cristata and Hystrix africaeaustralis (from Trucchi & Sbordoni 2009). Numbers at main nodes indicate bootstrap values. (c) Maximumlikelihood tree of genome-wide RAD nuclear markers (taken from Trucchi et al. 2016, readapted). Available bootstrap values are shown. Red colour refers to H. cristata, grey to H. africaeaustralis; a sequence of H. indica was included as outgroup for mtDNA trees.