Meriones (Parameriones) rex Yerbury and Thomas 1895

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 : 1237

Meriones (Parameriones) rex Yerbury and Thomas 1895

Meriones (Parameriones) rex Yerbury and Thomas 1895 , Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1895: 552.

Type Locality: Yemen, Lahej, near Aden.

Vernacular Names: King Jird.

Synonyms: Meriones (Parameriones) buryi Thomas 1902 ; Meriones (Parameriones) philbyi ( Morrison-Scott 1939) .

Distribution: Yemen highlands in SW Arabian Peninsula, from Mecca in Saudi Arabia to near Aden in Yemen (see Al-Jumaily [1998] and Harrison and Bates [1991:289]).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Parameriones , according to Nadler and Lay (1967) and Harrison and Bates (1991), but not allocated to a subgenus by Pavlinov et al. (1990), who reviewed the species. A distinctive jird that "... has evolved in the special and peculiar environment of the Yemen highlands..." ( Harrison and Bates, 1991:291). Karyotype (2n = 38, FN = 74) documented by Al-Saleh and Khan (1987).