Highveld Gerbil – Gerbilliscus brantsii

Gerbilliscus brantsiiSmith, 1836

Accepted name, Mammal Species of the World 2005

Subgenus Taterona. Taxonomy and distribution summarized by Meester et al. (1986), who assigned the species to the G. afra group. Geographic variation in protein and enzyme markers among samples from Lesotho was reported by Maurer et al. (1976). Pre- and postmating isolation in karyotypically identical G. afra and G. brantsii documented by Dempster (1996; see account of G. afra). The Angolan humpatensis was described as a species (Hill and Carter, 1937) but subsequently listed as a subspecies of G. brantsii (F. Petter, 1975b) or a possible subspecies of G. leucogaster (Crawford-Cabral, 1986), or simply included in G. brantsii (Pavlinov et al., 1990). Crawford-Cabral (1988, 1998) and Crawford-Cabral and Pacheco (1991) treated humpatensis as a relict species surviving only in the Humpata highlands, a view requiring better documentation. There is significant geographic variation in chromatic and morphologic... [truncated]

• Wilson, D and Reeder, D. (eds.) 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3rd ed. -- 2142 pp. Johns Hopkins University Press.