Crocidura hirta Peters, 1852

Denys, Christiane, Lalis, Aude, Lecompte, Émilie, Cornette, Raphaël, Moulin, Sibyle, Makundi, Rhodes H., Machang, Robert S., Volobouev, Vitaly & Aniskine, Vladimir M., 2011, A faunal survey in Kingu Pira (south Tanzania), with new karyotypes of several small mammals and the description of a new Murid species (Mammalia, Rodentia), Zoosystema 33 (1), pp. 5-47 : 38-40

Crocidura hirta Peters, 1852

Crocidura hirta Peters, 1852: 78 .

Despite a great number of individuals, there is very little morphological and size variability among the collected specimens ( Table 20), which belong to a relatively large sized shrew species.

Twelve studied specimens invariably display similar karyotype characterised by 2n = 50 and FNa = 62 ( Fig. 22). Chromosome banding studies are needed to establish phylogenetic affinities with the other congeneric species occurring in east and west Africa and having similar or slightly different karyotypes after standard chromosome analysis. Meylan (1971), Meylan & Vogel (1982), Maddalena et al. (1987) and Schlitter et al. (1999) also studied the karyotypes of the large representatives of the genus in many parts of Africa and found some variations in the chromosome numbers ( Table 21). Here the KP specimens have similarities with the west and east African shrews of the “ olivieri ” complex like C. spurelli Thomas, 1910 , C. manni Peters, 1878 , C. kivu Osgood, 1910 and C. olivieri Lesson, 1827 , which share a common karyotype of 2n = 50, FN = 66, FNa = 62. A comparison with C. flavescens I. Geoffroy, 1827 from South Africa shows that the karyotype differs from that of the previous species by displaying a 2n = 50 with FN = 74 and FNa = 62 ( Maddalena et al. 1987). Meylan & Vogel (1982) have grouped the forms kivu , spurelli , olivieiri and manni under the name C. occidentalis (Pucheran, 1855) but the correct name according to Maddalena et al. (1987) would be C. olivieri .

27

XY

15 16 17 18 19

XY

To clarify the latter point, a molecular study based on mtDNA cytochrome b and mitochondrial control region (ctr) has been performed with KP106, KP122 and KP 159 specimens ( Dubey et al. 2007) included in a large panel of C. olivieri s.l. group from various geographic origins. This work provided evidence of different well-sustained groups among which, the close proximity of the KP specimens with C. hirta from the north of South Africa. Crocidura hirta has been already collected by Stanley et al. (1996) in the Chome Forest, South Pare Mountains, Tanzania, with only one specimen captured close to a river.