Orycteropus afer senegalensis

Orycteropus afer senegalensis is the aardvark of Senegal, described from a specimen from Podor on the Senegal River.^[1]

Names and classification

Lesson named it Orycteropus senegalensis in 1840, in the Revue Zoologique 3 (p. 225), from the banks of the Senegal River at Podor.^[1][2] Schinz gave the same name to the same animal independently in 1845, so his name is a later duplicate of Lesson’s.^[2][3] Lydekker made it a subspecies of afer in 1908.^[2][4]

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.^[5]

Description

Lesson described short, thick blond hair, golden on the back, thighs and arms, with fiery red limbs and a pale blond tail. The specimen he used was in the Rochefort museum.^[1]

Range

It is given as living in Senegal. The type specimen came from Podor on the Senegal River.^[5][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.^[6] Treat this name as a historical description, not as a settled form. See the full list of names.

Sources

1. Lesson 1840, Nouveau tableau du règne animal / Species des mammifères
2. Mammal Diversity Database, Orycteropus afer
3. Allen 1939, “A checklist of African mammals”, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 83
4. Lydekker 1908, The Game Animals of Africa
5. Taylor 2011, Order Tubulidentata, in Handbook of the Mammals of the World, vol. 2
6. California Academy of Sciences, Afrotheria research page: Tubulidentata (secondary)