Gerbilliscus leucogaster (Peters, 1852), 1990

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 : 36

Gerbilliscus leucogaster (Peters, 1852)

Meriones leucogaster Peters, 1852: 274 .

In the Selous, there are four potential species of Gerbilliscus that can be found according to Kingdon (1974): G. validus Bocage, 1890 , G. inclusus Thomas & Wroughton, 1908 , G. robustus Cretzschmar, 1826 and G. nigricaudus Peters, 1878 . According to Bates (1985), there is a size difference in the external measurements between G. robustus and G. nigricaudus . The bushveld gerbil Gerbilliscus leucogaster occurs in southern savannas and was recorded in SW Tanzania and north Malawi according to Musser & Carleton (2005). It was not found in Masai Steppe (north Tanzania) by Fadda et al. (2001) but was recovered in Dakawa by Corti et al. (2005) and Colangelo et al. (2005). Gerbilliscus boehmi Noack, 1887 was also known in Tanzania ( Swynnerton & Hayman 1951) but is clearly distinguished from our specimen by its unique feature of double grooved incisors.

Only two young Gerbilliscus individuals (one male and one female) were caught in line C. One shows a medium haired brown tail with a tuft at the end, the other, smaller, has a yellow light tail with no tuft at the end. Both show a small HF compared to G. inclusus and G. nigricaudus specimens.

Their feet are dark coloured, which places them into the G. robustus group, according to Kingdon (1974). Both KP specimens show a small HF compared to G. validus , G. nigricaudus and G. inclusus specimens.They are slightly smaller than G. robustus and G. nigricaudus . By comparison with south Tanzanian G. leucogaster , the size of the KP specimens is rather smaller, as is the HF ( Table 17).

After the chromosome number and morphology, the two specimens karyotyped here belong to G. leucogaster studied by Qumsiyeh (1986) and Colangelo et al. (2005) ( Table 18, Fig. 20 ).

Family SCIURIDAE Fischer, 1817 Tribe PROTOXERINI Moore, 1959

Figures

FIG. 20. — Standard karyotype of KP Gerbilliscus leucogaster (Peters, 1852) specimen (MNHN-CG2007-1135).