Fukomys, Kock & Ingram & Frabotta & Honeycutt & Burda, 2006

Kock, Dieter, Ingram, Colleen M., Frabotta, Laurence J., Honeycutt, Rodney L. & Burda, Hynek, 2006, On the nomenclature of Bathyergidae and Fukomys n. gen. (Mammalia: Rodentia), Zootaxa 1142 (1), pp. 51-55 : 52-54

Fukomys new genus

Type species

Bathyergus damarensis Ogilby, 1838 , as proposed by Ingram et al. (2004: 1008) for Coetomys .

Etymology

" Fuko " from stem of vernacular names of mole­rats and the verb "fuk(ul)a" denoting brining up soil by mole­rats in African Bantu languages in the area of the mechowii group distribution, plus " mys " = mouse; gender masculine.

Diagnosis (from Ingram et al. 2004: 1008)

At the current state of knowledge and due to extensive interspecific and intergeneric convergence (or conservatism and parallelism) as well as intraspecific polymorphism relative to size and color patterns, Fukomys n. g. cannot be clearly separated from Cryptomys on grounds of morphological and/or morphometric characters. Fukomys n. g. (and its separation from other bathyergid genera) is characterized by allozyme, nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers (for details see Ingram et al. 2004), and high karyotypic diversity with diploid numbers ranging from 40 to 78 (versus stable diploid number 2N = 54 in Cryptomys sensu stricto). The separation of both genera is supported by: (1) reciprocal monophyly of the two lineages based on independent nuclear and mitochondrial datasets and multiple analyses, (2) the level of sequence divergence observed between these two lineages for both nuclear and mitochondrial markers, relative to that observed for other genera (i.e., Bathyergus and Georychus ) (for detail see Ingram et al. 2004, and the literature cited there). Mole­rats of Fukomys are characterized by their social and mating systems: monogamy with helpers and pronounced philopatry. Members of the genus live in larger families, where only one parental pair reproduces and offspring engage in cooperative burrowing and foraging, with some species considered eusocial. Prenatal and postnatal development in Fukomys appears slower/longer than in Cryptomys . Note, however, that data on social and reproductive biology are unknown for many species of this genus.

Distribution

Wide but disjunct distribution in sub­Saharan Africa extending from Ghana and Nigeria in west Africa to the southern Sudan in east Africa (within the Sudanian vegetation phytochorion), and from southern Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Tanzania to the Western Cape Province of South Africa (i.e., throughout the Zambezian, Kalahari­Highveld, Karoo Namib, and Cape phytochoria) in the West and south to the Limpopo River in the East: Fukomys is replaced by the genus Cryptomys south of the Limpopo River to Cape of Good Hope, except for C. nimrodi De Winton, 1897 (locus typicus near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe).

Species included (mainly fide Ingram et al. 2004: 1008):

Bathyergus [= Cryptomys ] damarensis Ogilby 1838 (Damaraland, Namibia);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] ochraceocinereus Heuglin 1864 (Bongo country, Bahr el­

Ghazal, Sudan);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] mechowii Peters 1881 (Malange, N. Angola);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] darlingi Thomas 1895 (Harare, Zimbabwe);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] bocagei De Winton 1897 (Hanha,W. Angola);

Georychus whytei Thomas 1897 (Karonga, NW. Lake Malawi, Malawi, cf. Burda et

al. 2005);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] zechi Matschie 1900 (Kete Kradji, E. Ghana);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] amatus Wroughton 1907 (near Chiwali’s, Alala Plateau,

Zambia, cf. Macholan et al. 1998);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] micklemi Chubb 1909 (Kataba River, upper Zambezi, W.

Zambia; cf. Van Daele et al. 2004);

Georychus [= Cryptomys ] foxi Thomas 1911 (Panyam, N. Nigeria);

Cryptomys h. "choma" Faulkes et al. 1997 nom. nud. (Kalomo, Zambia);

Cryptomys anselli Burda et al. 1999 (Chainama Hills Golf Club, Lusaka, Zambia);

Cryptomys kafuensis Burda et al. 1999 (Itezhi­Tezhi, Kafue N.P., Zambia);

Cryptomys "Kasama" Kawalika et al. 2001, nom. nud. (Kasama, Zambia).

More species are expected to be identified with the addition and analysis of samples, particularly from the Zambezian region ( Van Daele et al, 2004).