Orycteropus afer afer is the nominate subspecies, the one that carries the same name as the species, and the form of southern Africa.[1]
Names and classification
The species was first named Myrmecophaga afra by Pallas in 1766, in his Miscellanea zoologica. He described a foetus that had been sent from the Cape of Good Hope with the Dutch name Aardvarken, “earth pig”.[2][3] The Cape of Good Hope is the type locality, and the type is lost.[3][1] Myrmecophaga capensis Gmelin, 1788, is a later name for the same animal.[3] As the first subspecies named, it carries the same name as the species.[1]
The Mammal Diversity Database treats this name as a synonym of the single species, Orycteropus afer.[3] Taylor’s 2011 account lists it among 18 named subspecies, but says that neither their validity nor the limits of their ranges are properly known.[1]
Description
Lydekker described the Cape form as having pale sandy or straw-coloured body hair, dark brown outer limbs and a long, narrow skull.[4]
Range
Taylor gives its range as north-east Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho.[1]
Status
Eighteen subspecies have been named, but that number is almost certainly too high, and because so little material exists, neither the status nor the limits of range of the subspecies are known.[5] Treat this name as a historical description, not as a settled form. See the full list of names.