Philantomba monticola (Thunberg 1789)

[Philantomba] monticola (Thunberg 1789), Resa uti Europa Africa, Asia ..., Vol. 2: 66.

Type Locality: South Africa, "Lange Kloof"; since identified as borders of Western and Eastern Cape, Uniondale and Humansdorp Dist., Langkloof, 33°48'S, 23° to 24° 30'E; see Grubb (1999:21).

Vernacular Names: Blue Duiker.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. monticola Thunberg 1789

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. aequatorialis Matschie 1892

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. anchietae Bocage 1879

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. bicolor Gray 1863

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. congicus Lönnberg 1908

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. defriesi W. Rothschild 1904

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. hecki Matschie 1897

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. lugens Thomas 1898

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. melanorheus Gray 1846

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. musculoides Heller 1913

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. simpsoni Thomas 1910

Subspecies Philantomba monticola subsp. sundevalli Fitzinger 1869

Distribution: Forested habitats in N Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Dem. Rep. Congo, Equatorial Guinea (Bioko, Mbini), Gabon, W and E Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria east of Cross River, Republic of Congo, South Africa (East Cape Prov., KwaZulu-Natal), S Sudan, Tanzania including Pemba and Zanzibar Isls, Uganda, Zambia, E Zimbabwe. Former or present occurrence in Swaziland uncertain. No record from Lesotho (Lynch, 1994).

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II as Cephalophus monticola; IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as Cepalophus monticola .

Discussion: May include maxwellii; see Haltenorth and Diller (1977:43). Can be partitioned between grey-legged melanorheus division (includes also aequatorialis, congicus, lugens, musculoides, and sundevalli) and red-legged nominate monticola division (includes also anchietae, bicolor, defriesi, hecki, and simpsoni). Cotterill (2003 b) recognised pembae and melanorheus as evolutionary species.