Soriculus minor Dobson, 1890

Chen, Zhongzheng, Pei, Xiaoxin, Hu, Jiangxiao, Song, Wenyu, Khanal, Laxman, Li, Quan & Jiang, Xuelong, 2024, Multilocus phylogeny and morphological analyses illuminate overlooked diversity of Soriculus (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla: Soricidae), with descriptions of two new endemic species from the eastern Himalayas, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201 (2), pp. 534-548 : 543-544

Soriculus minor Dobson, 1890 ( Fig.6 ; Table 1 )

Soriculus minor Dobson, 1890 : pl.xxiv. Type locality: Manipur, Assam.

Soriculus radulus Tomas, 1922: 429 . Type locality: Misimi Hills, Assam.

Suggested common name: Lesser large-clawed shrew; ẇkmŧ Dzẽē.

Type locality: Manipur, Assam.

Remarks: This is the smallest species in the genus Soriculus (W = 8.9 ± 1.2 g, HB = 74 ± 1 mm; Table 1 ). The dorsal pelage is dark brown to black, and ventral pelage slightly paler. Tail is short (TL = 37 ± 4 mm, range 31–43 mm; Table 1 ), averaging 52% of head and body length. The tail is not sharply bicoloured, dark brown above and paler below. Foreclaws are markedly enlarged. The species externally somewhat similar in appearance to the sympatric species Blarinella wardi Thomas, 1915 , but the latter has five upper unicuspids, and all teeth are heavily pigmented dark chestnut or black.

The skull is distinctly smaller than in other Soriculus species, and the posterior of the skull is angular rather than rounded. The apex of the first upper incisor is placed straight downwards. There are four upper unicuspids that are crowded together. Four upper unicuspids (U 1 –U 4) are present; U 1 is largest in size, U 2 is slightly larger than U 3 and U 4 is minute. Pigmentation of the teeth is very light, only present on the tips of the teeth, and much lighter than those of other Soriculus species.

Comments: Soriculus minor was first described by Dobson (1890), but it was not subsequently used as a valid name. Motokawa (2003) demonstrated that S. minor should be used as the senior synonym of S. radulus . It was then treated as a subspecies of S. nigrescens , although many authors have pointed out that it is distinctly smaller ( Hoffmann 1985, Jenkins 2013). Jiang et al. (2023) found the sequences of S. n. minor (clade YN) do not form a monophyletic group with S. nigrescens , proposing instead that S. minor may represent a new genus. Our results indicated S. minor is a distinct species of Soriculus .

Distribution: Soriculus minor is distributed in Bhutan, northeastern India, northern Myanmar, and south-western China (southern Tibet and north-western Yunnan, west of Salween River) ( Jenkins 2013, Burgin and He 2018). The known elevational range is 1400 m to 2630 m a.s.l.

Figures

Figure 6. Dorsal, ventral, and lateral views of the skull and lateral view of the mandible of (A) S. nigrescens (MT201904155), (B) S. nivatus (holotype, MT1904951), (C) S. medogensis (holotype, MT201811181), and (D) S. minor (TC-H-KIZ 2345).