Thallomys loringi (Heller 1909)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1509

Thallomys loringi (Heller 1909)

[Thallomys] loringi ( Heller 1909) , Smithson. Misc. Coll., 52: 471.

Type Locality: E Kenya, Lake Naivasha.

Vernacular Names: Loring's Thallomys.

Distribution: Known only by specimens from E Kenya, and N and E Tanzania; limits unknown.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Originally described as a species of Thamnomys ( Heller, 1909) , then listed as a subspecies of Thallomys nigricauda (G. M. Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941), and finally allocated to T. damarensis (here included in nigricauda ) as a subspecies (F. Petter, 1973 a). Thallomys loringi is morphologically and probably phylogenetically allied to T. nigricauda , but no critical documentation of its conspecificity with that species has ever been presented. Because T. loringi can be diagnosed by pelage and other distinctions, we list it as a species, a hypothesis that can be tested by careful systematic revision of samples from regions outside of southern Africa. Morphometric analyses presented by Taylor et al. (1995) identified a skull from Kenya as possibly being T. nigricauda , which highlights the need to determine the relationship between that species and T. loringi .