Species
Stenocephalemys ruppi
Description
Stenocephalemys ruppi (Van der Straeten & Dieterlen, 1983)
Praomys ruppi Van der Straeten & Dieterlen, 1983
Type locality: Bonke, north of Bulta (Gamo Gofa region), 2800-3200 m a.s.l., Ethiopia.
Taxonomic notes: A short sequence of mitochondrial cytb marker was obtained from the paratype of S. ruppi (SMNS23151) and it clearly clustered with the clade ap_2 from the Chingawa (= Inegawa) Forest in south-western Ethiopia (Bryja et al. 2018). Two genetically and morphologically distinct species co-occur in this forest; one is S. albipes and we assigned the name S. ruppi to the second, based on the mtDNA sequence of the paratype (see Bryja et al. 2018 for more details). This assignment was confirmed by morphometric analysis by Mizerovská et al. (2020). The morphology of S. ruppi is intermediate between S. albipes and other mid-sized taxa, which is the reason why it was described as Praomys, and subsequently reported as Myomys or Myomyscus (see Musser & Carleton 2005 for more details).
The type locality, Bonke, was visited by L.A. Lavrenchenko in 2011. The local people still remember the expedition of Hans Rupp in 1974 (who collected the type series), but the habitat has been significantly altered since that time and the forest has disappeared (Lavrenchenko & Bekele 2017). Therefore, it is highly probable that the species is extinct in this area. In the Chingawa Forest, S. ruppi and S. albipes were found in the same trapping line. With some experience, they can be recognized by the colouration pattern (pelage, tail, hind foot) and other external traits, e.g. shorter relative tail length and longer body length (see also Meheretu et al. 2022). We have not found any evidence of possible hybridization (Bryja et al. 2018), but more extensive genetic study is required. This forest is much more humid compared to other forests in south-western Ethiopia, which can be the reason why S. ruppi was not found in many other forests, despite intensive trapping over the last decade (only S. albipes, often very abundant, was found in other forests, e.g. Sheko, Godare, Charada). Besides the Chingawa Forest, the species was recently reported from the Bamboo Forest in the Kaffa Biosphere Reserve (Meheretu et al. 2022).
Taxonomy
Stenocephalemys ruppi is a species. It belogs to the Muridae family.
