Sorex caecutiens Laxmann, 1788

Jo, Yeong-Seok, Baccus, John T. & Koprowski, John L., 2018, Mammals of Korea: a review of their taxonomy, distribution and conservation status, Zootaxa 4522 (1), pp. 1-216 : 29

Sorex caecutiens Laxmann, 1788 —Laxmann’s Shrew

Sorex caecutiens Laxmann, 1788 p.285 ; Type locality-southwest shore of Lake Baikal, Russia; Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.48; Corbet, 1978 p.20; Han, 1994 p.45; Won & Smith, 1999 p.9; Han, 2004a p.30.

S. macropygmaeus Miller, 1901 p.158 .

S. annexus Thomas, 1906 p.859 .

S. caecutiens annexus: Van den Brink, 1953 p.108 ; Won, 1958 p.450; Jones & Johnson, 1960 p.559; Won, 1967 p.271.

S. caecutiens macropygmaeus: Won, 1968 p.56 .

S. caecutiens caecutiens: Yoon, 1992 p.19 .

S. caecutiens hallamontanus: Jo et al., 2012 p.249 .

Range: As the most common species of the Genus Sorex , S. caecutiens ranges throughout the Korean Peninsula and Jeju Island ( Jo et al. 2012; Fig. 15 ). It is locally abundant in the northeastern Korean Peninsula along higher mountain ranges ( Kim et al. 2015). Sorex caecutiens also inhabits the region near Seoul. Mt Odae and Mt. Jiri are known as habitats of this species in South Korea ( Yoon 1992).

Remarks: The subspecific status of S. caecutiens in Korea remains ambiguous (S. c. annexus Jones and Johnson, 1960 ; S. c. macropygmaeus Miller, 1901 ). The first collection of Laxmann’s shrew on Jeju Island occurred in 1994 ( Ohdachi et al. 2003; Jo et al. 2012). Ten years later, Ohdachi et al. (2005) assigned a new Subspecies Sorex caecutiens hallamontanus Abe and Oh, 2005 , to the population on Jeju Island. The Jeju subspecies has morphological similarity with S. shinto , but DNA data grouped the Jeju subspecies with S. caecutiens ( Ohdachi et al. 2005) . Also, populations of S. caecutiens from Korea clustered with populations on Sakhalin Island based on cytochrome b analysis ( Ohdachi et al. 2003).

Figures

FIGURE 15. Range map of Sorex caecutiens in Korea.