Dendromus vernayi Hill and Carter, 1937

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 : 543-544

Dendromus vernayi Hill and Carter, 1937 . Am. Mus. Novit., 913:4.

TYPE LOCALITY: EC Angola, Chitau, 4930 ft .

DISTRIBUTION: Known only from the type locality ( Hill and Carter, 1941; Crawford-Cabral, 1986).

COMMENTS: Hill and Carter described vernayi as a subspecies of D. mesomelas , an association which has not been questioned ( Bohmann, 1942; Misonne, 1974; Crawford-Cabral, 1986). Our study of the holotype and original series revealed vernayi to be distinguished from mesomelas by its smaller size, bright buffy venter, much shorter tail, and shorter and stubby rostrum. No data supports its affiliation with D. mesomelas as a subspecies and it is clearly distinct from the much larger D. insignis .