Anourosorex yamashinai Kuroda 1935

Anourosorex yamashinai Kuroda 1935, J. Mammal., 16: 288.

Type Locality: N Taiwan, Taiheizan, Taihoku-siu, 5500 ft. (1676 m).

Vernacular Names: Taiwanese Mole Shrew.

Distribution: C highlands of Taiwan from 1500-2500 m.

Discussion: Described as a subspecies of A. squamipes and kept as such until recently; see Petter (1963 b), Jameson and Jones (1977), Hutterer (1993 a), and Motokawa and Lin (2002). However, this island population differs from the Chinese mainland forms by a smaller body, shorter tail, and a distinct karyotype (Harada and Takada, 1985), and represents a species endemic to Taiwan (Motokawa et al., 2004). The ecology, distribution, and sub-population structure of A. yamashinai was studied by Alexander et al. (1987), Yu (1993, 1994) and Yu et al. (2001), making it the best-studied species of the genus.