Grammomys rutilons (Peters, 1876)

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 594

Grammomys rutilons (Peters, 1876) . Monatsb. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, p. 478.

TYPE LOCALITY: Gabon, Limbareni .

DISTRIBUTION: Tropical rain forest block and outlying patches: from Guinea (Mt Nimba) eastward through Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, S Nigeria to Central African Republic and Zaire, then south through Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon to N Angola. Also found on Bioko (= Fernando Poo) and in forest patches in W Uganda.

SYNONYMS: centralis , kuru , poensis .

COMMENTS: Usually considered a member of Thamnomys ( Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941; Hutterer and Dieterlen, 1984), but external, cranial, and dental morphology is more similar to that characterizing species of Grammomys (where it was listed by D. H. S. Davis, 1965, and Misonne, 1974), and we include it within Grammomys pending critical systematic evaluation of samples now identified as rutilans . The form kuru , treated here and by D. H. S. Davis (1965) as a synonym of G. rutilans , is sometimes listed as a species (e.g., Ellerman, 1941), but with provisions ( Hatt, 1940a; Hutterer and Dieterlen, 1984; Thomas, 1915); our study of the holotype revealed it is a very young adult rutilans . Tranier and Dosso (1979) reported 2N=36 for an individual captured in Ivory Coast; this contrasts with 2N=50 usually recorded for G. rutilans ( Matthey, 1963) and either signals exceptional chromosomal variation within rutilans or the presence of a morphologically undetected species.