Sorex (Sorex) minutus Linnaeus 1766

Sorex (Sorex) minutus Linnaeus 1766, Syst. Nat., 12th ed., Part I: 73.

Type Locality: "Yenisei"; restricted by Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987:15) to "Krasnoyarskii kr., Krasnoyarsk." According to Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951:47), Linnaeus' name is based on Laxmann's ms. of Sibir. Briefe, and the type locality is Barnaul, Russia .

Vernacular Names: Eurasian Pygmy Shrew.

Synonyms: Sorex (Sorex) becki Lehmann 1963; Sorex (Sorex) canaliculatus Ljungh 1806; Sorex (Sorex) carpetanus Rey 1971; Sorex (Sorex) exiguus Brink 1952; Sorex (Sorex) exilis Gmelin 1788; Sorex (Sorex) gymnurus Chaworth-Musters 1932; Sorex (Sorex) heptapotamicus Stroganov 1956; Sorex (Sorex) hibernicus Jenys 1838; Sorex (Sorex) insulaebellae Heim de Balsac 1940; Sorex (Sorex) kastchenkoi Johansen 1923; Sorex (Sorex) lucanius Miller 1909; Sorex (Sorex) melanderi Ognev 1928; Sorex (Sorex) minimus Geoffroy 1811; Sorex (Sorex) pumilio Wagler 1832; Sorex (Sorex) pumilus Nilsson 1844; Sorex (Sorex) pygmaeus Laxmann 1769; Sorex (Sorex) rusticus Jenys 1838 .

Distribution: Europe to Yenesei River and Lake Baikal, south to Altai and Tien Shan Mtns; populations of Nepal and China have been alternatively identified as minutus or thibetanus; populations of Turkey and the Caucasus as minutus or volnuchini; populations of Kashmir and N Pakistan as minutus, planiceps, or thibetanus .

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Sorex, S. caecutiens group. Formerly included gracillimus and volnuchini, which are each now accepted as specifically distinct; see comments therein. Corbet (1978 c) included also planiceps and thibetanus; but see Dolgov and Hoffmann (1977), Hoffmann (1996 a, b) and Hutterer (1979). The European populations of minutus were revised by Hutterer (1990, 1999). Karyotype has 2n = 42, FN = 56 (Zima et al., 1998), but 2n = 40 and 36 in the Baltic islands +land and Gotland (Fredga et al., 1995).