Arvicanthis nairobae J. A. Allen 1909
Creators: name: Musser, Guy G.
name: Carleton, Michael D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1993
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Muridae
Arvicanthis
Arvicanthis nairobae

description: <i>Arvicanthis nairobae</i> J. A. Allen, 1909. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 26:168. TYPE LOCALITY: Kenya, Nairobi. DISTRIBUTION: Recorded in and east of the Rift Valley from Mount Lololokwi ("an isolated mountain east of the Mathews Range, about midway between Mount Kenia and Mount Marsabit," Hollister, 1919) in C Kenya south to the Dodoma region in EC Tanzania; N and S limits unknown. SYNONYMS: <i>chanleri, pallescens, praeceps, virescens.</i> COMMENTS: The name <i>nairobae</i> is the oldest applicable to samples from east of the Rift Valley in Kenya and Tanzania containing animals smaller in body size and gererally brighter and buffier in pelage than those larger and darker specimens we have identified as <i>A. niloticus</i> from west of the Rift. Some specimens of A. <i>nairobae</i> closely resemble those of <i>A. somalicus</i> in pelage coloration, and might be mistaken for it, but are larger in body size. Corbet and Yalden (1972) even suggested that <i>chanleri</i> might represent <i>somalicus,</i> but the holotype is larger and fits within the range of variation seen among samples of <i>nairobae.</i> Records of sympatry between <i>nairobae</i> and <i>somalicus</i> are documented by series from Mount Lololokwi (specimens in the National Museum of Natural History), and the Dodoma region of Tanzania (samples in the American Museum of Natural History), and the two are probably broadly sympatric throughout their ranges in Kenya and Tanzania. The morphological and geographic relationships between <i>A. nairobae</i> and <i>A. niloticus</i> require resolution, which could be accomplished by systematic review of the <i>niloticus-nairobae</i> complex. For example, <i>nairobae</i> is found with <i>A. somalicus</i> in the Dodoma region and they are the only species of <i>Arvicanthis</i> represented by specimens from E Tanzania. In contrast, samples from the Tabora area, to the west of Dodoma, contain <i>A. somalicus</i> and a species significantly larger in body size with darker pelage than samples of <i>A. nairobae</i> from Dodoma. It is this larger species that ranges south into Zambia and north through W Tanzania, W Kenya, and Uganda. Studying the distribution of characters from samples collected along a transect between the Dodoma and Tabora regions would elucidate character and geographic relationships between the two kinds.
description: Published as part of <i>Guy G. Musser &amp; Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 501-755 in Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London :Smithsonian Institution Press</i> on page 577, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098
description: {"references": ["Hollister, N. 1919. East African mammals in the United States National Museum. Part II. Rodentia, Lagomorpha, and Tubulidentata. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, 99 (2): 1 - 184.", "Corbet, G. B., and D. W. Yalden. 1972. Recent records of mammals (other than bats) from Ethiopia. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology Series, 22 (8): 213 - 252."]}