Dasymys Peters, 1875

Denys, Christiane, Missoup, Alain Didier, Nicolas, Violaine, Fülling, Olaf, Delapré, Arnaud, Bilong, Charles Felix Bilong, Taylor, Peter John J. & Hutterer, Rainer, 2014, African highlands as mammal diversity hotspots: new records of Lamottemys okuensis Petter, 1986 (Rodentia: Muridae) and other endemic rodents from Mt Oku, Cameroon, Zoosystema 36 (3), pp. 647-690 : 666

Genus Dasymys Peters, 1875

Different revisions have attempted to clarify the taxonomic situation in Dasymys from west-central Africa ( Carleton & Martinez 1991; Verheyen et al. 2003; Mullin et al. 2004). Nine species are actually recognized for the genus by Musser & Carleton (2005). In West Africa, D. foxi Thomas, 1912 is restricted to Jos Plateau ( Nigeria) and D. rufulus Miller, 1900 is widely distributed from Senegal to Nigeria. D. incomtus (Sundevall, 1847) is reported from central South Africa. Among the recognized subspecies of D. incomtus , D. incomtus bentleyae Thomas, 1892 was reported from Ngombi in the Lower Congo. It was considered a valid species by Verheyen et al. (2003). Eisentraut (1963) described D. incomtus longipilosus Eisentraut, 1963 from Mt Cameroon but this name is actually considered as a synonym of D. bentleyae ( Verheyen et al. 2003) . However, Musser & Carleton (2005) keep D. bentleyae and D. longipilosus as subspecies of D. incomtus . Cameroon rodents of the genus Dasymys are poorly known. Most of them are listed as D. incomtus . According to Mullin et al. (2004) this name should be restricted to Zimbabwe and South Africa while D. rufulus should have a larger range than previously suggested. Based on geometric morphometric analyses, these authors also suggested the specific validity of the Mt Cameroon endemic Dasymys species, D. longipilosus , pending further genetic analyses. In the present study, no species name was attributed to the nine specimens newly collected pending further revision of the genus Dasymys .