Xerinae Murray

Kryštufek, Boris, Mahmoudi, Ahmad, Tesakov, Alexey S., Matějů, Jan & Hutterer, Rainer, 2016, A review of bristly ground squirrels Xerini and a generic revision in the African genus Xerus, Mammalia (Warsaw, Poland) 80 (5), pp. 521-540 : 531

Subfamily Xerinae Murray

Xeri Murray, 1866, p. 256. Type genus is Xerus (by tautonomy). Emended to Xerini ( Kryštufek and Vohralik 2013).

Xerinae Osborn, 1910, p. 535. Type genus is Xerus (by tautonomy).

Xerini Simpson, 1945, p. 79. Type genus not defined. Simpson evidently changed the rank from Osborn’s (1910) subfamily to a tribe, without altering its scope.

In the past, the subfamily Xerinae was usually defined to include the African genera Xerus and Atlantoxerus , and the Asiatic Spermophilopsis ( Osborn 1910, Pocock 1923). Steppan et al. (2004) redefined the scope of Xerinae by including also Arctomyinae Grey, 1821 ( Marmotinae Pocock, 1923 is a synonym; cf. Kryštufek and Vohralik 2013). A phylogenetic reconstruction of Fabre et al. (2012) retrieved Xerinae to consist of two lineages, which are appropriately classified as tribes ( Kryštufek and Vohralik 2013), the Xerini (cf. below) and the Callosciurini Simpson, 1945. The scope of Callosciurini is identical to the content of the subfamily Callosciurinae of Steppan et al. (2004). Close relationships between Xerini and Callosciurini are evident from chromosomal data ( O’Shea 1991).