Myomys yemeni Sandborn and Hoogstraal, 1953

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 : 631

Myomys yemeni Sandborn and Hoogstraal, 1953 . Fieldiana, Zoology, 34:241.

TYPE LOCALITY: Yemen, Kariet Wadi Dhahr, six miles northwest of San'a, 6400 ft .

DISTRIBUTION: Recorded only from N Yemen and SW Saudia Arabia (see map in Harrision and Bates, 1991:249).

COMMENTS: Originally described by Sanborn and Hoogstraal (1953) as a subspecies of M. fumatus , the diagnostic traits of yemeni are outside the range of variation recorded for any sample of fumatus . Our study of holotype and specimens of yemeni and fumatus at the Field Museum of Natural History revealed that yemeni is much larger than fumatus (no overlap in length of molar rows, for example), has paler pelage and significantly larger ears and auditory bullae (both absolutely and relative to body size). The morphological attributes of yemeni define a distinctive species of Myomys ; its phylogenetic relationships to other species in the genus have yet to be resolved. The species (under fumatus ) was reviewed by Harrison and Bates (1991).