RODENTS OF LIBYA 



145 



He stated further that these coastal gerbils differed from those of 

 the interior in their smaller size, denser fur, less tufted tails, and less 

 variable dorsal pelage. Later, Setzer (1958) also recognized these 

 differences and named Gerbillus campestris wassifi, with a range 

 ascribed to northwestern coastal Egypt, and described Gerbillus 

 campestris haymani representing the interior populations of Siwa 

 Oasis. He concluded that by virtue of its smaller size and prominently 

 biocolored tail, G. c. wassifi was more closely related to G. c. dodsoni 

 than to G. c. haymani and attributed these similarities to the con- 

 tinuity of suitable habitat between the ranges of G. c. dodsoni and 

 G. c. wassifi. At that time, however, the range of G. c. dodsoni 

 was thought to include northern Cyrenaica and thus to be contiguous 

 with that of G. c. wassifi. Northern Cyrenaica is now included within 

 the range of a new subspecies, G. c. brunnescens, and it probably was 

 to representatives of this subspecies, then known as G. c. dodsoni, 

 that Setzer (1958) alluded in discussing the affinities of G. c. wassifi. 

 It is now known that G. c. wassifi is more closely related to G. c. 

 brunnescens than to either G. c. dodsoni or G. c. haymani. The range 

 of G. c. campestris is thought to be confined to coastal Algeria and 

 Tunisia and possibly northwestern Libya. 



In Libya, the range of this subspecies is confined to the Mediter- 

 ranean littoral of northeastern Cyrenaica at least as far west as Derna, 

 where intergradation with G. c. brunnescens occurs. 



The specimens from Bardia were collected among some localized 

 concentrations of thorny, bushy perennials growing from residual 

 mounds or elevations in the bottom of a recently flooded and 

 denuded wadi. 



B 



Figure 27. — Statistical comparison of length of ear of the subspecies of Gerbillus campestris: 

 A, G. c. brunnescens; B, G. c. dodsoni; C, G. c. patrizii. 



