Pitymys majori (Thomas, 1906)

James H. Honacki, Kenneth E. Kinman & James W. Koeppl, 1982, Order Rodentia (Part 4), Mammal Species of the World (1 st Edition), Lawrence, Kansas, USA: Alien Press, Inc. & The Association of Systematics Collections, pp. 477-504 : 501

Pitymys majori (Thomas, 1906) . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 17:419.

REVIEWED BY: G. Storch (GS).

TYPE LOCALITY: Turkey, Trabzon Prov., Sumela (=Meryemana), 30 mi. (48 km) S. of Trebizond (= Trabzon) .

DISTRIBUTION: N., E., and W. Turkey; W. Caucasus; S. Yugoslavia (GS).

COMMENT: Subgenus Meridiopitymys ; see Chaline, 1974; Corbet, 1978: 109, included ciscaucasicus and daghestanicus , for which Kratochvil and Kral, 1974, Zool. Listy, 23:289-302, provided evidence of specific distinctness; see also Felten et al., 1971, Senckenberg. Biol., 52(6):393-424. Includes nasarovi, which may be a distinct species; see Tembotov et al., 1976, Nalchik, pp. 3-35. Six different karyotypic forms have been found in the Caucasus ranges (see Hatuhov and Tembotov, 1978:390, in II Congr. Theriol. Intern. (Brno), Obrtel, Folk, and Pellantova, eds., Inst. Vert. Zool., Czech. Acad. Sci., Brno, and Khatukhov (= Hatuhov), 1980:382, in [Rodents. Materials of the All-Union Conf.], Panteleev, ed., Nauka, Moscow, 471 pp.). Ketenchiev, 1980:21, in [Rodents. Materials of the All-Union Conf.], Panteleev, ed., Nauka, Moscow, 471 pp., suggested that all may constitute a single, chromosomally polymorphic, species. See Petrov and Zivkovic, 1979, Biosystematika, 5(1):1 13-125, for alternative discussion of distribution.