Scrub Hare – Lepus saxatilis

Lepus saxatilisF. Cuvier, 1823

Accepted name, Mammal Species of the World 2005

Placed by Gureev (1964:203) in subgenus Proeulagus, and in Sabanalagus by Averianov, 1998). Formerly included crawshayi and whytei, see Ansell (1978:67), Swanepoel et al. (1980:159), and Robinson and Dippenaar (1983b, 1987); but see also Petter (1961a, 1972b). Angermann (1983) considered whytei a distinct species that includes crawshayi; Flux and Angermann (1990) placed both as subspecies of victoriae (= microtis); see comments therein. The range of saxatilis completely overlaps the range of capensis sensu stricto, except in northern Southwest Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, where the smaller northern subspecies (subrufus) is allopatric with respect to both large capensis and the southern race of equally large L. s. saxatilis (Flux and Angermann, 1990; Smithers, 1983).

• 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.