252 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 75 



Records of porcupines from Gharian (Klaptocz, 1909) and Barce 

 (Festa, 1921) indicate that they occur on the Cyrenaican Plateau, 

 as well as the Tripolitanian Gebel, and probably are commonest in 

 these mountainous regions of Libya. The broad, chaparral-covered 

 valleys of the Cyrenaican Plateau and the rocky canyons of the 

 coastal escarpment in Cyrenaica and Tripolitania probably provide 

 the most suitable habitats for porcupines. A specimen from Derna 

 in northern Cyrenaica (de Beaux, 1938) constitutes the only known 

 record from the coastal plain proper, but the coastal escarpment near 

 Derna approaches near to the sea, almost obliterating the coastal 

 plain, and probably this specimen was taken from the escarpment 

 rather than from the coastal plain. 



Family Ctenodactylidae 



Genus Ctenodactylus Gray 



Ctenodactylus gundi (Rothman) 



Mus gundi Rothman, Schloezer's Briefwechsel, p. 339, 1776 (Gharian, 80 km S 

 Tripoli, Libya). 



General distribution of the species. Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, 

 and Morocco. 



Distribution in Libya. Mountainous areas and the larger wadis 

 of northern Tripolitania. 



Distribution of the subspecies in Libya. 



Ctenodactylus gundi gundi. Tripolitania: The Gebel Nefusa, 

 Gebel Tigrinna, Gebel Jefren, and other parts of the Tripolitanian 

 Gebel. 



Ctenodactylus gundi vali. Tripolitania: The transitional desert 

 between the Gebel es Soda and the Gulf of Sirte. 



Published records in Libya. Tripolitania: Gharian (Yarrel, 

 1831; Klaptocz, 1909; Toschi, 1951); Wadi Titti, Bu Ngem (Thomas, 

 1902); Wadi Soffegin at Orfella (Toschi, 1951). 



Remarks. In the past, the gundis of Libya have been variously 

 regarded as two distinct species, Ctenodactylus gundi and Ctenodactylus 

 vali (Thomas, 1902; Klaptocz, 1909; Zavattari, 1934; Toschi, 1951; 

 Petter, 1961), or considered as one species, C. gundi, with C. vali 

 treated as a subspecies (Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951; Toschi, 

 1954; Setzer, 1957). 



Petter (1961) regarded C. vali and C. gundi as separate species but 

 used sympatry as his primary argument in establishing their specific 

 identity. He apparently misinterpreted Toschi (1951) and presumed 

 that the collecting site of C. vali in the Wadi Soffegin and the collecting 

 sites of C. gundi on the Gebel Nefusa were part of the same plateau 

 complex. Actually, the ranges of C. vali and C gundi are geographi- 



