Typomys Thomas, 1911

Denys, Christiane, Missoup, Alain Didier, Nicolas, Violaine, Sylla, Morlaye, Douno, Mory, Kadjo, Blaise, Lalis, Aude & Monadjem, Ara, 2025, Annotated checklist of rodents from a biodiversity hotspot, Mount Nimba (West Africa), Zoosystema 47 (27), pp. 617-689 : 635-636

Genus Typomys Thomas, 1911

( Tables 7 ; 8 )

REMARKS

Recent molecular phylogenies suggested to rehabilitate the genus Typomys for two species which were assigned previously to genus Hybomys ( Missoup et al. 2018, Pradhan et al. 2021). This work followed the suggestions of Carleton & Robbins (1985). West Africa has two recognized species of Typomys : T. planifrons Miller, 1900 and T. trivirgatus Temminck, 1853 . The main difference between these species is the number of dorsal stripes of the pelage: one in T. planifrons and three in T. trivirgatus. Roche (1971) recorded specimens in Seredou ( 170 km west from Nimba) with one and three stripes that he attributed to T. trivirgatus . Heim de Balsac & Lamotte (1958) signalized the presence of a single-striped Typomys which they named T. univittatus planifrons . They did not recorded T. trivirgatus on Mount Nimba, but only in Boola ( Guinea, 100 km North of Mount Nimba), where it coexists with T. planifrons ( Heim de Balsac & Lamotte 1958) . In Ziama, Mamba et al. (2021) recovered one specimen of T. trivirgatus in the Wologizi Liberian side of the Mount. It was also recovered by Coe (1975) on the Liberian side of Mount Nimba (Iti valley) between 850 m and 1350 m and was associated with montane forest. According to Gautun et al. (1986) only T. planifrons was found by them on Mount Nimba. According to Carleton & Robbins (1985), both species coexist West of the Sassandra River and Misonne & Verschuren (1976) indicated they are present on the Liberian side of Mount Nimba. Coe (1975) reported collecting both single-striped and three-striped mice, which he classified as Typomys trivirgatus planifrons and Typomys trivirgatus trivirgatus , respectively.

All the new specimens captured by us were molecularly identified as T. trivirgatus . However, we have inspected all the previously collected material and can thus confirm the presence of both species of Typomys from Mount Nimba