Published December 31, 2005 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Tachyoryctes ruddi Thomas 1909

Description

Tachyoryctes ruddi Thomas 1909

Tachyoryctes ruddi Thomas 1909, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 4: 547.

Type Locality: Kenya, Mt Elgon, Kirui, 6000 ft (1830 m).

Vernacular Names: Rudd's African Mole Rat.

Synonyms: Tachyoryctes badius Thomas 1909.

Distribution: SW Kenya between foothills of Mt Elgon and Port Florence on NE margin of Lake Victoria (Hollister, 1919), Ugandan and Kenyan slopes of Mt Elgon, SW Uganda (Lunde and Sarmiento, 2002), and NW Tanzania (N Kagera Prov.).

Conservation: IUCN - Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Thomas (1909 b) described T. ruddi as being about the same body size as T. daemon but differing in a suite of cranial traits; he also described badius as a subspecies of T. ruddi. This species and T. ankoliae have been taken together in the Kalinzu Forest Reserve, SW Uganda (Lunde and Sarmiento, 2002). Localities in NW Tanzania represent T. daemon according to Swynnerton and Hayman (1951), but we suspect that they represent T. ruddi. Tachyoryctes ankoliae has been reported from the same region in NE Tanzania (Bukoba; Swynnerton and Hayman, 1951). Ranges of the small-bodied T. ruddi, T. naivashae, and T. daemon are allopatric in mountains and high plains encircling Lake Victoria; specimens from intervening regions between the ranges and critical systematic revision should reveal the actual genetic relationships among these populations. Hollister (1919) commented on variation in pelage traits. Habitat and altitudinal distribution of T. ruddi on Ugandan slopes of Mt Elgon documented by Clausnitzer (2001) and Clausnitzer and Kityo (2001).

Notes

Published as part of Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Spalacidae, pp. 907-926 in Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore :The Johns Hopkins University Press on page 907, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7316535

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
Thomas
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Order
Rodentia
Family
Spalacidae
Genus
Tachyoryctes
Species
ruddi
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Tachyoryctes ruddi Thomas, 1909 sec. Wilson & Reeder, 2005

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.
  • Lunde, D. P., and E. E. Sarmiento. 2002. Rodents collected from Kalinzu Forest, Uganda. Mammalian Biology, 67: 250 - 255.
  • Thomas, O. 1909 b. New African mammals. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 8, 4: 542 - 549.
  • Swynnerton, G. H., and R. W. Hayman. 1951. A checklist of the land mammals of the Tanganyika Territory and the Zanzibar Protectorate. Journal of the East African Natural History Society, 20 (6): 274 - 392.
  • Clausnitzer, V., and R. Kityo. 2001. Altitudinal distribution of rodents (Muridae and Gliridae) on Mt. Elgon, Uganda. Tropical Zoology, 14: 95 - 118.