Meriones libycus Lichtenstein 1823
Creators: name: Musser, Guy G.
name: Carleton, Michael D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1993
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Muridae
Meriones
Meriones libycus

description: <i>Meriones libycus</i> Lichtenstein, 1823. Verz. Doublet. Zool. Mus. Univ. Berlin, p. 5. TYPE LOCALITY: Egypt, near Alexandria. DISTRIBUTION: North Africa from Western Sahara (Rio de Oro) to Egypt, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and into S Turkestan to W China (Xinjiang). SYNONYMS: <i>afghanus, aquilo, arimalius, auratus, azizi, caucasius, caudatus, coIlium, edithae, erythrourus, evelynae, eversmanni, farsi, gaetulus, guyonii, heptneri, iranensis, marginae, mariae, maxeratis, melanurus, oxianus, renaultii, schousboeii, schwarzovi, sogdianus, syrius, turfanen.</i> COMMENTS: Subgenus <i>Pallasiomys.</i> Reviewed by Corbet (1978c). Regional studies cover populations in Algeria (Kowalski and Rzebik-Kowalska, 1991), Libya (Ranck, 1968, as <i>caudatus),</i> Egypt (Osborn and Helmy, 1980), Arabian Penninsula (Harrison and Bates, 1991), Iran (Lay, 1967), and Afghanistan (Hassinger, 1973). Results of comparative craniometric analyses between Moroccan samples of M. <i>libycus</i> and <i>M. shawi</i> obtained in sympatry were reported by Zaime and Pascal (1988). Morphological and karyotypic contrasts between these same two species as well as laboratory hybridization experiments, were recorded by Lay and Nadler (1969). In North Africa, <i>M. libycus</i> inhabits the Sahara desert, but does extend to the Mediterranean in Morocco, Algeria, and Libya where it overlaps the distribution of <i>M. shawi,</i> which is primarily Mediterranean littoral (Lay and Nadler, 1969; Zaime and Pascal, 1988). Citations for synonyms among Russian samples were supplied by Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987); <i>afghanus</i> is proposed as a new subspecies in that checklist. The Xinjiang population was reviewed by Ma et al. (1987). Lay and Nadler (1969) also clarified why <i>caudatus,</i> used by Ranck (1968) as a species name for Libyan samples, simply refers to <i>M. libycus.</i> Corbet (1978c:127), apparently unaware of the report by Lay and Nadler (1969), followed Ranck and listed <i>caudatus</i> as a species, but cautioned that <i>caudatus</i> may be "conspecific with <i>M. libycus</i> and that the Libyan forms assigned by Ranck to <i>M. libycus</i> should really be allocated to M. <i>shawi</i> <i>."</i> This is correct and restates the past confusion that has "clouded the taxonomy of <i>M. shawi</i> and <i>M. libycus</i> because of uncertainty concerning the number of species in this complex and their nomenclature" (Lay and Nadler, 1969:44).
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 pages 556-557, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098
description: {"references": ["Corbet, G. B. 1978 c. The mammals of the Palaearctic region: A taxonomic review. British Museum (Natural History), London, 314 pp.", "Kowalski, K., and B. Rzebik-Kowalska. 1991. Mammals of Algeria. Zaklad Narodowy Imienia Ossolinskich Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk Wroclaw, Poland, 370 pp.", "Ranck, G. L. 1968. The rodents of Libya: Taxonomy, ecology, and zoogeographical relationships. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, 275: 1 - 264.", "Osborn, D. J., and I. Helmy. 1980. The contemporary land mammals of Egypt (including Sinai). Fieldiana: Zoology, 5: 1 - 579.", "Harrison, D. L., and P. J. J. Bates. 1991. The mammals of Arabia, Second ed. Harrison Zoological Museum, Sevenoaks, United Kingdom, 354 pp.", "Lay, D. M. 1967. A study of the mammals of Iran resulting from the Street expedition of 1962 - 63. Fieldiana: Zoology, 54: 1 - 282.", "Hassinger, J. D. 1973. A survey of the mammals of Afghanistan resulting from the 1965 Street Expedition (excluding bats). Fieldiana: Zoology, 60: 1 - 195.", "Zaime, A. K., and M. Pascal. 1988. Recherche d'un indice craniometrique discriminant deux especes de meriones (Meriones shawi et M. libycus) vivant en sympatrie sur le site de Guelmime (Maroc). Mammalia, 52: 575 - 582.", "Nadler, C. F., D. M. Lay, and J. D. Hassinger. 1969. Chromosomes of three asian mammals: Meriones meridianus (Rodentia: Gerbillinae), Spermophilopsis leptodactylus (Rodentia: Sciuridae), Ochotona rufescens (Lagomorpha: Ochotonidae). Experientia, 25: 774 - 775.", "Pavlinov, I. Ya., and O. L. Rossolimo. 1987. Sistematika mlekopitayushchikh SSSR [Systematics of the mammals of the USSR.]. Moscow University Press, Moscow, 282 pp. (in Russian).", "Ma Yong, Wang Feng-gui, Jin Shan-ke, and Li Si-hua. 1987. [Glires (rodents and lagomorphs) of Northern Xinjiang and their zoogeographical distribution.] Science Press, Academia Sinica, Beijing, 274 pp. (in Chinese)."]}