Species
Arvicanthis mearnsi
Description
Arvicanthis mearnsi Frick, 1914
Besides the genetically very distinct species A. raffertyi (belonging to the so-called ANSORGEI group, sensu Bryja et al. 2019), there are three additional species occurring in the Rift Valley in Ethiopia (Bryja et al. 2019): A. mearnsi, A. somalicus, and A. niloticus s. str. The latter probably prefers higher altitudes (confirmed from Koka and Dera Dilfekar, ca. 1700 m a.s.l.), but A. mearnsi and A. somalicus co-occur e.g. in the Awash NP (Demeter 1983). Arvicanthis abyssinicus mearnsi Frick, 1914 was described from “Sadi Malka, the River Awash, 2800 ft (853 m a.s.l.)”, close to the current Awash NP. The name is reported as a synonym of “niloticus” in Musser & Carleton (2005), but Bryja et al. (2019) suggested it as the most suitable name for the larger lowland species living (at least) in the northern part of the Rift Valley and at the southern margin of the Afar triangle. All genetically confirmed individuals of A. mearnsi are from the central and northern part of the Rift Valley. It is likely that previous records of larger Arvicanthis from this area (Corbet & Yalden 1972, Demeter 1983; some of them reported as A. dembeensis by Yalden et al. 1976) represent this taxon. Its precise distributional limits and phylogenetic relationships with A. niloticus s. str. should be further investigated, but the two species seem to be closely related as suggested by shared insertion at one nuclear gene and sister relationship in the species tree (Bryja et al. 2019).
Taxonomy
Arvicanthis mearnsi is a species. It belogs to the Muridae family.
