Sylvisorex johnstoni (Dobson 1887)

[Sylvisorex] johnstoni (Dobson 1887), Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1887: 577.

Type Locality: Cameroon, Rio del Rey.

Vernacular Names: Johnston's Forest Shrew.

Synonyms: Sylvisorex dieterleni Hutterer 1986 .

Distribution: Lowland forest of the Dem. Rep. Congo Basin, SW Cameroon, Gabon, Bioko, Republic of Congo, Dem. Rep. Congo, Uganda, NW Tanzania, Burundi.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Species reviewed by Hutterer (1986 b); recently found in the Republic of Congo (Dowsett and Granjon, 1991) and Burundi (Kerbis, pers. comm.). A peculiar karyotype (2n = 30, FN = 38; Schlitter et al., 1999) and 16s rRNA sequence data (Querouil et al., 2001) set this species apart from other species of the genus. Querouil et al. (2003) studied the phylogeography of the species across the Congo Basin. They found great genetic distances between populations in S Gabon and W Congo, and suggested that cryptic species may be involved.