Malacomys Milne-Edwards, 1877

Genus Malacomys Milne-Edwards, 1877 View in CoL

( Tables 7 View TABLE ; 8 View TABLE )

REMARKS

For a long time, the number of species and subspecies within Malacomys has been heavily debated. According to the most recent morphological and genetic data ( Bohoussou et al. 2014, 2015), three species can be recognized within this genus, two being present in West Africa ( M. edwardsi Rochebrune, 1885 and M. cansdalei Ansell, 1958 ). Heim de Balsac & Lamotte (1958) and Heim de Balsac & Aellen (1965) placed the Nimba specimens into M. longipes edwardsi . The holotype of M. edwardsi was collected in the margin of river Malacore at the Liberia-Guinean border. It is characterized by 2N = 48, NF= 52 ( Matthey 1958, Van der Straeten & Verheyen 1979, Tranier pers. com.). According to Gautun et al. (1986), two species of Malacomys are known on Mont Nimba: M. edwardsi and M. longipes giganteus Bellier & Gautun, 1968 . Malacomys l. giganteus was later synonymized with M. cansdalei by Musser & Carleton (2005). A phylogeographic and morphometric analysis confirmed that in West Africa the two species present are M. edwardsi and M. cansdalei ( Bohoussou et al. 2014, 2015) and are clearly distinguished by size.

Heim de Balsac & Lamotte (1958) briefly described nine specimens collected on the Guinean side of Mount Nimba as belonging to M. edwardsi . On the Liberian side Coe (1975) and Misonne & Verschuren (1976) only found M. edwardsi . During our new surveys, we collected both species of Malacomys on Mount Nimba and all the newly collected specimens were sequenced.