Published December 31, 2005 | Version v1

Gerbillus (Gerbillus) agag Thomas 1903

Description

Gerbillus (Gerbillus) agag Thomas 1903

Gerbillus (Gerbillus) agag Thomas 1903, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1903: 296.

Type Locality: Sudan, W Kordofan, Agageh Wells.

Vernacular Names: Agag Gerbil.

Synonyms: Gerbillus (Gerbillus) cosensi Dollman 1914; Gerbillus (Gerbillus) dalloni Heim de Balsac 1936; Gerbillus (Gerbillus) maradius Kock 1978.

Distribution: Mali, N Nigeria, and Niger to Chad, Sudan and Kenya.

Conservation: IUCN – Critically Endangered as G. cosensis and G. dalloni, Lower Risk (lc) as G. agag.

Discussion: Subgenus Gerbillus. Taxa listed above as synonyms have been associated with G. agag (Kock, 1978; Pavlinov et al., 1990; F. Peter, 1975 b), but Lay (1983) found the limits of this species impossible to define based on published analyses. He regarded it as monotypic pending systematic revision. The taxon dalloni was united with G. agag by F. Petter (1975 b) without supporting documentation, "... but the type localities are separated by more than 2300 km " (Lay, 1983:340), and dalloni should "... be regarded as a valid species pending revision." Although F. Petter (1975 b;9) included cosensi as a synonym of G. agag, he also noted it "could be a valid species." Kock (1978) described maradius as a subspecies of G. agag. The morphological, chromosomal, molecular, and geographic limits of G. agag clearly require resolution but until then we group together the taxa treated as species by Lay (1983), an arrangement found also in Pavlinov et al. (1990).

Notes

Published as part of Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 1189-1531 in Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore :The Johns Hopkins University Press on page 1223, 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
Muridae
Genus
Gerbillus
Species
agag
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Gerbillus (Gerbillus) agag Thomas, 1903 sec. Wilson & Reeder, 2005

References

  • Thomas, O. 1903. Notes on Neotropical mammals of the genera Felis, Hapale, Oryzomys, Akodon, and Ctenomys, with descriptions of new species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 7, 12: 234 - 243.
  • Kock, D. 1978. Vergleichende untersuchung einiger saugetiere im sudlichen Niger. Senckenbergiana Biologica, 58: 113 - 136.
  • Pavlinov, I. Ya., Yu. A. Dubrovsky, O. L. Rossolimo, and E. G. Potapova. 1990. [Gerbils of the world.] Nauka, Moscow, 368 pp. (in Russian).
  • Lay, D. M. 1983. Taxonomy of the genus Gerbillus (Rodentia: Gerbillinae) with comments on the applications of generic and subgeneric names and an annotated list of species. Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 48: 329 - 354.
  • Petter, F. 1975 b. Subfamily Gerbillinae. Part 6.3. Pp. 7 - 12, in The mammals of Africa: An identification manual (J. Meester and H. W. Setzer, eds.) [issued 10 Dec 1975]. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., not continuously paginated.