A New Record of Beamys from Tanzania

• DOI: 10.2307/1381565
• Publication Date: 2006-07-28T01:39:32Z
• Authors: J. T. Christensen
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences

The rodent genus Beamys is known from only a few localities in Africa. Two species have been described, Beamys hindei (Thomas, 1909), recorded from Kenya and Tanzania (Dieterlen, 1979; Hubbard, 1970), and Beamys major (Dollman, 1914), recorded from Malawi and Zambia (Ansell, 1960; Ansell and Ansell, 1973; Hanney, 1965). Their disjunct distribution and rarity suggest that they are relict forms. Egoscue (1972), Hanney and Morris (1962), and Hubbard (1970) have reported on the biology. In Tanzania Beamys has been recorded in the northeastern part of the country, in the Kilimanjaro, Pare, and Usambara areas, and Kingdon (1974) also reported it from the southwest, although he gave no specific localities. While surveying agricultural rodent problems in southeastern Tanzania I trapped four specimens of this rare rodent. The specimens were collected on the Rondo Plateau (10*10'S, 39*10'E) in Lindi District. The southern part of Tanzania is still not very well studied zoologically, and the Rondo Plateau is especially interesting, since stands of native forest still are present on the slopes. The animals were taken near the village of Mnara in snaptraps, baited with pieces of coconut. The habitat is best described as bush fallow, the most recent crop having been cassava. All four specimens were damaged by ants, rendering some measurements unobtainable. Three subadult males taken on 22 March 1983 ranged in weight from 26 g to 50 g. The largest individual had a head and body length of 125 mm and a tail length of 120 mm. A subadult female, weighing only 22 g was caught on the following day. The material is deposited in Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen, under numbers CN14962, CN14963, CN14964, and CN14965. The state of the material does not validate classification with one of the two forms, and, as pointed out by Hubbard (1970) and Ansell and Ansell (1973), hindei and major are probably to be regarded as conspecific. Kingdon (1974) listed the two forms as subspecies of Beamys hindei, classifying specimens from southwestern Tanzania as B. h. major. Trapping was carried out during the rains in March 1983. Attempts to trap more specimens in September 1983 and in August 1984 were unsuccessful. Other rodent species trapped in the area were Praomys natalensis, Mus minutoides, Rattus rattus, Acomys spinosissimus, Lemniscomys griselda, Grammomys dolichurus and Tatera robusta. The shrew, Crocidura hirta, was also caught.