Saccostomus campestris Peters 1846

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Nesomyidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 930-955 : 933

Saccostomus campestris Peters 1846

Saccostomus campestris Peters 1846 , Bericht Verhandl. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 11: 258.

Type Locality: Mozambique, Tete Dist., Zambezi River, Tete.

Vernacular Names: Southern African Pouched Mouse.

Synonyms: Saccostomus anderssoni de Winton 1898 ; Saccostomus angolae Roberts 1938 ; Saccostomus elegans Thomas 1897 ; Saccostomus fuscus Peters 1852 ; Saccostomus hildae Schwann 1906 ; Saccostomus lapidarius Peters 1852 ; Saccostomus limpopoensis Roberts 1914 ; Saccostomus mashonae de Winton 1897 ; Saccostomus pagei Thomas and Hinton 1923 ; Saccostomus streeteri Roberts 1914 .

Distribution: Arid to mesic southern savannahs and grasslands: from SW Tanzania across to W Angola (see Crawford-Cabral, 1998: Map 20); south through most of Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia; to S Mozambique and S South Africa (Western and Eastern Cape provinces).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: A composite of two or more species as suggested by extraordinary chromosomal, morphological, and genetic variation ( Corti et al., 2004; Denys, 1988; Gordon, 1986; Gordon and Rautenbach, 1980); the status of anderssoni and mashonae especially deserves attention in regard to campestris proper. Ellison (1993) demonstrated and discussed geographic variability in torpor response in the context of the species distribution and its karyotypic variants; Ellison et al. (1993) examined correlations between body size and climatic variables in southern Africa.