Species
Stenocephalemys griseicauda
Description
Stenocephalemys griseicauda F. Petter, 1972
Type locality: Bale Mountains, Dinsho, Ethiopia.
Taxonomic notes: All previous records reported under this species name from north-western part of the Ethiopian Highlands belong either to S. zimai or S. sokolovi (see Mizerovská et al. 2020).
The species is known only from the Afromontane Erica belt in the Arsi and Bale Mountains, where it can live in sympatry or elevational parapatry with S. albocaudatus (in higher elevation) and S. albipes (in lower elevation) (Yalden 1988, Lavrenchenko et al. 1997, Kostin et al. 2019). The species S. griseicauda was described from Dinsho in Bale Mts., east of Rift valley. Multilocus nuclear genetic data suggest that the Bale and Arsi Mts. represent the only region with "true" S. griseicauda, where it lives at elevations of 3000-3800 m a.s.l. The only exception is probably the isolated population in the clearing of Harenna Forest at Katcha, where this species was repeatedly captured at 2400 m a.s.l. (Lavrenchenko 2000). Genetically very distinct populations west of Rift valley (previously reported as S. griseicauda) belong either to S. zimai or S. sokolovi (see Mizerovská et al. 2020). The karyotype of S. griseicauda from Arsi is similar to that from Debre Sina (= S. sokolovi) located on the opposite sides of the Rift valley (Bryja et al. 2018). This karyotype (2n=54, NFa=58) has been described earlier for S. griseicauda from Bale (Lavrenchenko et al., 1997, 1999).
Taxonomy
Stenocephalemys griseicauda is a species. It belogs to the Muridae family.
