Aethomys Thomas, 1915

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 : 567

Aethomys Thomas, 1915 . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 16:477.

TYPE SPECIES: Epimys hindei Thomas, 1902 .

SYNONYMS: Micaelamys .

COMMENTS: Genus uncritically reviewed by Ellerman (1941), more fully by Davis (1975b), and still requires careful systematic revision to understand specific diversity, geographic distributions, and phylogenetic relationships of the genus with other African murines. Micaelamys is traditionally used as a subgenus for A. granti and A. namaquensis , but the characters separating them from other species in Aethomys are no more significant than the traits distinguishing those other species. Chromosomal data for various species provided by Matthey (1964) and Baker et al. (1988c).