Rhabdomys
Rhabdomys is a largely Southern African genus of muroid rodents slightly larger than house mice. They are known variously as striped or four-striped mice or rats. Traditionally the genus has been seen as a single species, Rhabdomys pumilio, though modern evidence on the basis of karyotype and mtDNA analysis suggests that it comprises two or more species and subspecies. Dorsally Rhabdomys species display four characteristic black longitudinal stripes on a paler background.
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Appearance and distribution
- Ecology and general behaviour
- Breeding
- Social structure
- Morphology
- Karyotypic forms
- References
- Further reading
Rhabdomys is a largely Southern African genus of muroid rodents slightly larger than house mice. They are known variously as striped or four-striped mice or rats. Traditionally the genus has been seen as a single species, Rhabdomys pumilio, though modern evidence on the basis of karyotype and mtDNA analysis suggests that it comprises two or more species and subspecies. Dorsally Rhabdomys species display four characteristic black longitudinal stripes on a paler background.
==Appearance and distribution== Dorsally Rhabdomys species display four black longitudinal stripes on a paler background, and accordingly authors sometimes describe it as having seven stripes. In any event Rhabdomys species as a group are unmistakable because no similarly sized Southern African rodents are similarly marked. Their stripes inspired the generic name, which is derived from the Greek rhabdos meaning rod; hence Rhabdomys, meaning something like "barred mouse".