Meriones libycus Lichtenstein, 1823 . Verz. Doublet. Zool. Mus. Univ. Berlin, p. 5.

TYPE LOCALITY: Egypt, near Alexandria .

DISTRIBUTION: Western Sahara to Egypt, through N. Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, to Sinkiang (China).

COMMENT: Includes caudatus; see Petter, 1975, Part 6.3:3, Lay and Nadler, 1969, Cytogenetics, 8:45, and Corbet and Hill, 1980:166; but also see Ranck, 1968, Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., 275: 164, who considered caudatus a distinct species. Includes arimalius (see Corbet, 1978:127, who also discussed the status of caudatus), iranensis (see Lay, 1967, Fieldiana Zool., 54:1 -282), and erythrourus (which Gromov and Baranova, 1981:165, listed as possibly distinct). Type locality restricted by Chaworth-Musters and Ellerman, 1947, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1947- 1948:485.

ISIS NUMBER: 5301410008092005001 as M. libycus .

5301410008092001001 as M. arimalius .