Microtus, Schrank, 1798

Genus Microtus View in CoL

Remarks: Microtus is the most speciose genus of voles but is represented in Syria only by social voles ( socialis species group). The group consists of several morphologically cryptic species. Taxonomy stabilized only in the last decade after molecular markers were utilized in the analyses. Earlier identifications are therefore not reliable. The following names have been used in the past for Syrian social voles: Microtus guentheri , M. irani , M. socialis , M. philistinus and M. socialis syriacus . Microtus socialis is probably not present S of Turkey and M. s. syriacus is the oldest name for Chionomys nivalis (see above under that species). Microtus philistinus Thomas, 1917 is a synonym of M. guentheri . Presence of M. guentheri in Syria was demonstrated by molecular markers ( Jaarola et al. 2004; Kryštufek et al. 2009). Further two species are almost certainly present: M. irani and M. dogramacii . So far, voles which differ from M. guentheri were classified as M. irani , but this needs confirmation by molecular markers. The Microtus group needs more studies to decide on present species. Mahmoudi et al. (2022) split Microtus irani into M. irani sensu stricto and M. schidlovskii ; the latter is present in Syria. This is now mentioned. Because the divergence between irani and schidlovskii is in a grey zone of overlap between inter- and intraspecific distances, we prefer to continue with the name irani .