Crocidura olivieri (Lesson, 1827)

Rainer Hutterer, 1993, Order Insectivora, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 69-130 : 92

Crocidura olivieri (Lesson, 1827) . Manuel de Mammalogie, p. 121.

TYPE LOCALITY: Egypt, Sakkara; the neotype designated by Corbet (1978c:30) was collected "near Giza " .

DISTRIBUTION: Egypt; Senegal to Ethiopia, and southwards to N South Africa.

SYNONYMS: anchietae, atlantis, bueae, cara, daphnia, darfurea, deltae, ferruginea, fuscosa, giffardi, guineensis, doriana, hansruppi, hedenborgiana, hera, herero, kijabae, kivu, luluana, manni, martiensseni, nyansae, occidentalis , odorata, spurelli, sururae, tatiana, toritensis, zuleika.

COMMENTS: Crocidura olivieri is the valid name for the large African shrews previously known as flavescens (which is now the valid name for a species restricted to South Africa); see Maddalena et al. (1987). This group of giant shrews was reviewed by Heim de Balsac and Barloy (1966). Well known subspecies names are anchietae, doriana, ferruginea, fuscosa, giffardi, guineensis, hansruppi, hedenborgiana, kivu, manni, martiensseni, nyansae, occidentalis , odorata, spurelli, and sururae. Some of these were considered allospecies of a flavescens superspecies by Hutterer and Happold (1983). Many authors also distinguished pale ( occidentalis , manni, spurelli) and black (giffardi, hedenborgiana, martiensseni, odorata) color morphs as different species but biochemical evidence showed that they are merely color morphs of a single and highly variable species (Maddalena, 1990). Crocidura olivieri may also include zaphiri ; see Yalden et al. (1976).