Crocidura gueldenstaedtii (Pallas, 1811)

Rainer Hutterer, 1993, Order Insectivora, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 69-130 : 86

Crocidura gueldenstaedtii (Pallas, 1811) . Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., 1:132.

TYPE LOCALITY: Georgia, near Dushet (N of Tbilisi) .

DISTRIBUTION: Transcaucasia.

SYNONYMS: aralychensis, bogdanowii, fumigatus, longicaudata .

COMMENTS: This name has produced much confusion. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1966) listed it as a subspecies of russula and were followed by Corbet (1978c), among others. Richter (1970) applied gueldenstaedtii even to Mediterranean populations of suaveolens and was followed in that action by Kahmann and Vesmanis (1976). Hutterer (1981d) suggested that all these populations represent suaveolens ; this was supported by karyological and biochemical data ( Catzeflis et al., 1985). Despite convincing evidence some Russian authors (e.g., Grafodatsky et al., 1988) still claim the existence of gueldenstaedtii as a species in the Caucasus. This species is most certainly conspecific with suaveolens .