Parotomys brantsii (A. Smith 1834)

[Euryotis] brantsii A. Smith 1834, South African Quart. J., ser. 2, 2: 150.

Type Locality: South Africa, Northern Cape Province, Little Namaqualand, "toward the mouth of the Orange River." .

Vernacular Names: Brants's Whistling Rat.

Synonyms: Parotomys deserti Roberts 1933; Parotomys luteolus (Thomas and Schwann 1904); Parotomys pallida (Wagner 1841); Parotomys rufifrons (Rüppell 1842) .

Distribution: Western, Eastern, and Northern Cape provinces, South Africa, to SW Botswana and SE Namibia (De Graaff, 1981:160).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Although Port Nolloth, purportedly as restricted by Thomas and Schwann (1904:178), is usually cited as the type locality of P. brantsii (e.g., Ellerman et al., 1953; Meester et al., 1986), a careful reading of Thomas and Schwann indicates that they had actually associated one of Smith’s cotypes with a series collected at Klipfontein, a place some 50 miles inland from Port Nolloth. The notion that the type locality was "restricted" to Port Nolloth apparently stems from an inadvertent indication in Roberts (1951). A future revisor of the species should clarify this matter. Meester et al. (1986) recognized deserti and rufifrons as subspecies in addition to the nominate form.