Bathyergus janetta Thomas and Schwann 1904

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Bathyergidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1538-1542 : 1538

Bathyergus janetta Thomas and Schwann 1904

Bathyergus janetta Thomas and Schwann 1904 , Abstr. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1904 (2): 6.

Type Locality: South Africa, Northern Cape Prov., coastal Little Namaqualand, Port Nolloth.

Vernacular Names: Namaqua Dune Mole-rat.

Synonyms: Bathyergus inselbergensis Shortridge and Carter 1938 ; Bathyergus plowesi Roberts 1946 .

Distribution: SW South Africa; S Namibia.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Ellerman et al. (1953) included janetta as a subspecies of suillus , but de Graaff (1975) regarded janetta and suillus as separate species. The genetic distance (Janeck et al., 1992; Nevo et al., 1987) and sequence divergence ( Allard and Honeycutt, 1992) observed between these two taxa are smaller or similar to values reported between subspecies of Cryptomys hottentotus . Roberts (1951) recognized three subspecies of janetta but de Graaff (1981) considered this taxon monotypic. Karyptype has 2n=54 and FN=104 ( Nevo et al., 1986).