Orycteropus afer haussanus is an aardvark of Togo, described from one skin and skeleton.[1]
Names and classification
Matschie named it Orycteropus haussanus in 1900, as a species, in the proceedings of the Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science (pp. 102 and 104).[1][2] He gave the name as meaning “the aardvark of the Hausa lands”.[1] Allen made it a subspecies of afer in 1939.[2][3]
The Mammal Diversity Database treats this name as a synonym of the single species, Orycteropus afer.[2] 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.[4]
Description
Matschie described a cinnamon-to-light-brown body washed with red, dark brown legs and ears shorter than those of the Cape form. The type came from Sokode, Togo, and was collected by Dr Kersting.[1]
Range
It is given as living in Togo. The type came from Sokode.[4][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.
Sources
- Matschie 1900, Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin
- Mammal Diversity Database, Orycteropus afer
- Allen 1939, “A checklist of African mammals”, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 83
- Taylor 2011, Order Tubulidentata, in Handbook of the Mammals of the World, vol. 2
- California Academy of Sciences, Afrotheria research page: Tubulidentata (secondary)