45 



3. Lophiomys Imhausi A. Milne-Edwards. 



By Prof. Henry H. G ig li oli in Firenze. 



The Florence Zoological Museum has recently received from Count 

 Lodovico Marazzani a splendid specimen of this very rare and sin- 

 gular Rodent, one of the very best examples of »defensive mi- 

 micry« known in the animal Kingdom. Our specimen comes from a 

 new locality, Erkanid on the Mountains between Suakin and Singat, 

 where it was captured quite accidentally on the 12th of April last by a 

 shot from a small revolver. It was also secured and preserved by mere 

 chance, for it was found by a small terrier-dog and killed at the bottom 

 of a deep fissure in the granitic rocks and its value was quite ignored 

 by those who first handled it; thus the skeleton and viscera were lost, 

 but happily the skin was in excellent condition and the skull had been 

 left attached. It is an adult female and has four teats, two axillary and 

 two inguinal ; it is rather larger than the fine specimen at Genoa, but 

 does not differ in colour or richness of fur. The luxuriant dorsal mane 

 to which this creature owes its name is separated from the long hairs 

 of the body by a narrow stripe of short stiff greenish bristles. The iris 

 was dark brown, and the animal emanated no special odour. 



This is the fourth specimen oî Lophiomys Imhausi that has been 

 secured to science. The first was the type specimen accidentally bought 

 alive by M. Imhaus at Aden in 1866, and described by prof. A. Milne- 

 Edwards; it is in the Paris Museum, skin, skeleton and viscera pre- 

 served. The second is the skull accidentally picked up by Dr. Sch wein- 

 furth at Maman, north of Kassala, and described in 1 867 by Prof Peters 

 as Phractomys aethiopicus^ it is I believe at Berlin. The third was 

 accidentally killed by a bloM' on the head with a stick in the scriba of 

 Beccari and Antin ori at Keren in the Bogos country in 1870; the 

 mounted skin and skeleton are in the Civic Museum at Genoa. The 

 fourth is the subject of this note, its skin has been mounted and with 

 the cranium forms an important item of the Florence Zoological 

 Museum. 



The Natives told Count Marazzani that the Lophiomys is rare, 

 that it lives in deep holes in the strangely fissured rocks of that country 

 and that it is a vegetable feeder; the stomach of my specimen was 

 distended with leaves and young shoots. 



The »habitat« of this species is now pretty well defined by lines 

 drawn from Suakin to Maman and Kassala and thence southwards 

 towards the Somali coast. 



Royal Zoological Museum, Florence. 



