Hemiechinus hypomelas (Brandt, 1836) . Bull. Sci. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, 1:32.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Pays de Turcomans", somewhere in S Kazakhstan. See Ognev (1927) for discussion .

DISTRIBUTION: Arid steppe and desert zones from Iran and Turkmenistan east almost to Tashkent (Uzbekistan), to the Indus R. and N Pakistan; isolates in Oman, near Aden and on the islands of Tanb and Kharg in the Persian Gulf.

SYNONYMS: amir, blanfordi, eversmanni, jerdoni, macracanthus, niger, sabaeus, seniculus.

COMMENTS: Subgenus Paraechinus . Includes eversmanni, sabaeus and seniculus as possible and blanfordi as a distinct subspecies; see Corbet (1988:155).