Myosorex preussi Matschie, 1893

Turni, Hendrik, Hutterer, Rainer & Asher, Robert, 2007, Type specimens of “ insectivoran ” mammals at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Zootaxa 1470, pp. 1-33 : 27

Myosorex preussi Matschie, 1893

Matschie, P. (1893) Ü ber einige afrikanische Sãugethiere. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin: 177 [175–178].

Valid name: Sylvisorex morio (Gray, 1862)

Syntypes: ZMB 6990, female, skull (skin of Sorex araneus , original skin presumably lost, see below); ZMB 6991, female, skin and skull; ZMB 6992, skin (skull of Crocidura attila , see below); all collected by Preuss from Buea, Cameroon, elevation 950 m.

Comments: Matschie based his original description on “three females from Buea, Cameroon, 950 m elevation”. However, this small series actually consists of three different genera and species. Upon inspection of the type series, Heim de Balsac & Lamotte (1956) concluded that some mismatching must have occurred at the Berlin Museum during Matschie s tenure. They identified the skin ZMB 6990 as the “ Type ” (marked with an asterisk in the catalogue) of “ Myosorex preussi ”, but the associated skull as belonging to Sylvisorex morio . The remaining specimens were listed as “Cotype A” (skin and skull of Sylvisorex morio ) and “Cotype B” (skin of S. morio , skull of Crocidura attila ). In a subsequent publication, Heim de Balsac (1968b) figured the skin of ZMB 6990 as the type and only representative of what he believed to be Myosorex preussi . It must be mentioned that this skin closely resembled skins of Myosorex proper from Cameroon described for the first time in that report. However, Hutterer (1993) identified the same skin as belonging to European Sorex araneus , while he found the other determinations to be correct. In fact, the colour of the skin reminded him of similar specimens from Brandenburg near Berlin. By declaring the skin of Sylvisorex preussi as the “ Type ” in 1956 (if equivalent to a lectotype designation), Heim de Balsac & Lamotte (1956) would have made the taxon a junior synonym of Sorex araneus , as followed by Hutterer (1993, 2005). It is impossible to know when the present mismatching of specimens occurred. Some details of Matschie s description (page 177, “ Einem Exemplar fehlt dieser Zahn”) suggest that the skull of Crocidura attila was already mismatched with the skin of Sylvisorex morio of ZMB 6992 when Matschie had the series on his desk. The Sorex araneus skin of ZMB 6990 deviates strongly from the other two skins in the series (see Fig. 7 ) and we assume that Matschie would have noticed the difference. It may have been associated with the wrong skull during the 50 years that passed between Matschie’s description and Heim de Balsac’s visit of the Berlin Museum in the 1950s. If so, then the selection of this skin by Heim de Balsac & Lamotte (1956) was invalid. Given that the other specimens of the type series represent species like Sylvisorex morio and Crocidura attila that do occur at Buea, Mt Cameroon (Eisentraut 1963), and given that ZMB 6991 is the only remaining specimen with correctly associated skin and skull, we select ZMB 6991 as the lectotype of Myosorex preussi Matschie, 1893 . The taxon therefore becomes a synonym of Sylvisorex morio (Gray, 1862) .

Figures

FIGURE 7. Skins of the type series of Myosorex preussi Matschie, 1893. ZMB 6992 and 6991 belong to Sylvisorex morio as shown by Heim de Balsac & Lamotte (1956). Note that Hutterer (1993) identified the skin of ZMB 6990 as belonging to European Sorex araneus.