Thallomys loringi (Heller, 1909)

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 668

Thallomys loringi (Heller, 1909) . Smithson. Mise. Coll., 52:471.

TYPE LOCALITY: E Kenya, Lake Naivasha .

DISTRIBUTION: Known only by specimens from E Kenya, and N and E Tanzania; limits unknown.

COMMENTS: Originally described as a species of Thamnomys ( Heller, 1909) , then listed as a subspecies of Thallomys nigricauda ( Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941), and finally allocated to T. damarensis (here included in nigricauda ) as a subspecies ( Petter, 1973a). T. loringi is morphologically and probably phylogenetically allied to T. nigricauda , but no critical documentation of its conspecificity with that species has ever been presented. Because T. loringi can be diagnosed by pelage and other distinctions, we list it as a species, a hypothesis that can be tested by careful systematic revision of the genus.