. Bonner zoologische Beiträge : Herausgeber: Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn. Biology; Zoology. African and Asian Tatera 269 Variation: There is no significant sexual dimorphism. However there is con- siderable variation between individuals, notably in tail colour. Specimens with relatively dark tails are found throughout the species' range, except Tanzania. However, the frequency of such specimens increases from the south to the north of the taxon's range. They are especially common west of the Eastern Rift Valley in northwestern Kenya, eastern Uganda, southw
. Bonner zoologische Beiträge : Herausgeber: Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn. Biology; Zoology. African and Asian Tatera 269 Variation: There is no significant sexual dimorphism. However there is con- siderable variation between individuals, notably in tail colour. Specimens with relatively dark tails are found throughout the species' range, except Tanzania. However, the frequency of such specimens increases from the south to the north of the taxon's range. They are especially common west of the Eastern Rift Valley in northwestern Kenya, eastern Uganda, southwestern Ethiopia and southern Sudan. There is little significant geographical variation in skull or body size, except that specimens from the south of the range tend to be relatively small. Future research may show that there is a distinct small race in central Tanzania, characterised by small tympanic bullae and a relatively short skull and a predominance of well defin- ed, bicolored tails. Should this prove to be the case, the name swaythlingi (Kershaw, 1921) type locality Morogoro, Tanzania, is available as the holotype agrees in these features. However, it is considered at present that the species is monotypic, albeit one that exhibits some geographical variation, and that the following forms should be included in the synonymy of T. r. robusta: iconica, macropus, mombasae, muansae, loveridgei, pothae, shoana, swaythlingi, taylori and vicina. The forms bayeri and bodessae considered by Davis (1975) to be synonyms of T. nigricauda are here re- ferred to T. robusta (see section on T. nigricauda below). It should also be noted that Bates (1985) maintained that the West African forms guineae and picta are not referable to T. robusta. Distribution: The distribution in north-east Africa and Tanzania is shown in Fig. 4. It is also recorded from Burkina Faso (Bates, 1985).. Fig. 4: Distribution of Tatera robusta and Tatera valida. Scale = 500 Please note that these images are e
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