Southern African Spiny Mouse – Acomys spinosissimus

Acomys spinosissimusPeters, 1852

Hyväksytty nimi,

Subgenus Acomys. Revised by Dippenaar and Rautenbach (1986). Genetic data indicated that A. spinosissimus should be placed in a species-group separate from other Acomys (Janecek et al., 1991). Barome et al. (2001b) reported morphological and molecular analyses of A. spinosissimus from Tanzania and Malawi compared with samples from farther south in the range. Their results not only demonstrated the monophyly of all geographic samples (from Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and NE South Africa) of A. spinosissimus, but also the distinctiveness of this species compared with South African A. subspinosus and other northern species (A. wilsoni, A. russatus, A. ignitus, A. airensis, A. cahirinus, and A. dimidiatus; see also Barome et al., 2000). Reviewed by de Graaf (1997b).