Gray African Climbing Mouse
Dendromus melanotis (A.Smith, 1834)
Also calledGraue Klettermaus (deu) · Grysklimmuis (afr) · Souris arboricole gris (fra) · afrikankiipijähiiri (fin) · myš stromová (ces) · nadrzewnik szary (pol) · ハイイロキノボリマウス (jpn)
First described in: S. Afr. Quart. J. vol.2 p.158
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
discussion
Discussion: Apparently most closely related to D. nyikae (see that account). A very widespread species and one requiring taxonomic revision, especially West African populations. Specimens from Mt Nimba, on the Guinea-Côte d’Ivoire border (Heim de Balsac and Lamotte, 1958; Rosevear, 1969), have ochraceous-red upperparts with indistinct stripe and white underparts, chromatic traits that fall outside the fur color and dorsal pattern of southern African D. melanotis (dorsum gray with prominent dark stripe, venter grayish), and may represent a separate species (either undescribed or a population of D. messorius). Crawford-Cabral (1998) questioned the inclusion of concinnus, but Thomas’ (1926 e) description fits within morphological variation currently accepted as D. melanotis (see Roberts, 1951: 449).
Order Rodentia - Family Nesomyidae
distribution
Distribution: From South Africa (de Graaff, 1997 dd; Skinner and Smithers, 1990: 306; Taylor, 1998) northward in the west through Botswana (Smithers, 1971) to C Angola (Crawford-Cabral, 1998; AMNH specimens from Chitau); northward in the east through Zimbabwe (Smithers and Wilson, 1979), Mozambique (Smithers and Lobao Tello, 1976), Zambia (Ansell, 1978), Malawi (Ansell and Dowsett, 1988; Ansell, 1989), and Tanzania (Mt Kilimanjaro; Grimshaw et al., 1995; Swynnerton and Hayman, 1951) to Uganda (Delany, 1975); westward through Nigeria and Ghana (Grubb et al., 1998) to S Guinea (Rosevear, 1969); also from Ethiopia (AMNH 81119 and four other specimens as reported by Duckworth et al., 1993, and Yalden et al., 1976). Range limits unresolved.
Order Rodentia - Family Nesomyidae
materials_examined
Type Locality: South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal Prov., near Port Natal (Durban).
Order Rodentia - Family Nesomyidae
distribution
DISTRIBUTION: From South Africa (see map in Skinner and Smithers, 1990: 306) north to Uganda, and west through Nigeria to Mt-Nimba in Guinea; also from Ethiopia (# 8119 in American Museum of Natural History), but published records might be D. mystacalis (Yalden et al., 1976). Limits of range unresolved.
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Dendromus melanotis in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 5219775.