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

description: <i>Arvicanthis abyssinicus</i> (Riippell, 1842). Mus. Senckenberg., 3:104. TYPE LOCALITY: Ethiopia, Simien Prov., Simien Mtns, Entschetqab (see Osgood, 1936:252). DISTRIBUTION: Ethiopia, between 1300-3400 m (Yalden et al., 1976). SYNONYMS: <i>fluvicinctus, rufodorsalis, saturatus.</i> COMMENTS: An Ethiopian endemic and morphologically distinctive species whose closest relative is <i>A. blicki,</i> another Ethiopian endemic. Historically the species was perceived to embrace forms occurring from Ethiopia south to Zambia (Allen, 1939; Dollman, 1911; Ellerman, 1941), but Osgood (1936:252) discussed several of <i>abyssinicus's</i> diagnostic features, noting that it "is not unlikely that it is confined to Ethiopia and at least some of the forms of Kenya and Uganda which have been associated with it will need other allocation." This view has been reinforced by morphometric analyses (Rousseau, 1983), and our examination of specimens. <i>Arvicanthis abyssinicus</i> and <i>A. blicki</i> are the only species of <i>Arvicanthis</i> endemic to Ethiopia, both are part of middle and high altitude grassland and moorland endemic mammal faunas of Ethiopia (Demeter and Topal, 1982; Rupp, 1980; Yalden, 1988), and both are more closely related to each other than to any other species of the genus. <i>Arvicanthis niloticus</i> and <i>A. somalicus</i> also occur in Ethiopia (see those accounts), but their ranges also extend far beyond that country's boundaries. Rousseau (1983) regarded <i>mearnsi,</i> described as a subspecies of <i>A. abyssinicus</i> by Frick (1914), to also be a subspecies of <i>A. abyssinicus,</i> but its qualitative dental and chromatic characteristics fall within the range of variation seen in <i>A. niloticus,</i> as Osgood (1936) and Yalden et al. (1976) noted (discussed by them under either <i>lacernatus</i> or <i>dembeensis).</i> Chromosomal data reported by Orlov et al. (1992) within the context of studying chromosomal variation among Ethiopian samples of <i>Arvicanthis.</i>
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 576, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098
description: {"references": ["Osgood, W. H. 1936. New and imperfectly known small mammals from Africa. Field Museum of Natural History, Zoological Series, 20: 217 - 256.", "Yalden, D. W., M. J. Largen, and D. Kock. 1976. Catalogue of the mammals of Ethiopia. 2. Insectivora and Rodentia. Monitore Zoologico Italiano, Supplemento 8 (1): 1 - 118.", "Allen, G. M. 1939. A checklist of African mammals. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 83: 1 - 763.", "Dollman, G. 1911. On Arvicanthis abyssinicus and allied East-African species, with descriptions of four new forms. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 8, 8: 334 - 353.", "Ellerman, J. R. 1941. The families and genera of living rodents. Vol. II. Family Muridae. British Museum (Natural History), London, 690 pp.", "Rousseau, M. 1983. Etude des Arvicanthis du Museum de Paris par analyses factorielles (Rongeurs, Murides). Mammalia, 47: 525 - 542.", "Demeter, A., and G. Topal. 1982. Ethiopian mammals in the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici (Budapest), 74: 331 - 349.", "Rupp, H. 1980. Beitrage zur Systematik, Verbreitung und Okologie athiopischer Nagetiere. Ergebnisse mehrerer Forschungsreisen. Saugetierkundliche Mitteilungen, 28 (2): 81 - 123.", "Yalden, D. W. 1988. Small mammals of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia. African Journal of Ecology, 26: 281 - 294.", "Frick, C. 1914. A new genus and some new species and subspecies of Abyssinian rodents. Annals of Carnegie Museum, 9: 7 - 28."]}