Apodemus latronum Thomas 1911

Apodemus latronum Thomas 1911 View in CoL

Apodemus latronum Thomas 1911 View in CoL , Abstr. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 100: 49.

Type Locality: China, W Szechwan, Tatsienlu.

Vernacular Names: Large-eared Field Mouse.

Distribution: S China (E Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Qinghai) and N Burma ( Ellerman, 1961; Feng et al., 1986; Musser et al., 1996; Wang, 2003; Zhang et al., 1997).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Apodemus group. Usually placed in subgenus Alsomys ( Pavlinov et al., 1995 a) ; included in an Apodemus group by Musser et al. (1996). Treated as a subspecies of A. draco by Feng et al. (1986), but A. latronum is a separate species that is sympatric with A. draco in Sichuan, Yunnan, and NE Burma ( Musser et al., 1996). Karyotype reported by Chen et al. (1996). Analysis of protein electrophoresis aligns A. latronum with A. draco and not A. chevrieri , the only three species in the study ( Bing et al., 1996), an alliance also reflected by morphology. Phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA cytochrome b and nuclear IRBP sequences united A. latronum in a clade with A. draco and A. semotus that is part of a larger lineage containing A. agrarius , A. chevrieri , A. peninsulae , and A. speciosus ( Suzuki et al., 2003; also see account of A. draco ). Musser et al. (1996) reviewed taxonomic history, morphology, relationships, and listed localities and specimens from China ( Sichuan and Yunnan) and NE Burma. Evolutionary history extends back to the early Pleistocene as documented by fossils from cave sediments in the Sichuan-Guizhou region of S China ( Zheng, 1993) and fissure deposits in Shandong ( Zheng et al., 1997).