326.

LLucina’s White-toothed Shrew

Crocidura lucina

French: Crocidure lucine / German: Lucina-WeilRzahnspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana de Lucina

Other common names: Lucina’s Shrew, Moorland Shrew

Taxonomy. Crocidura lucina Dippenaar, 1980,

““Web River’, near Dinshu, Ethiopia on type and paratype labels should read Ueb River (3 000 m a.s.l.), with coordinates given by collectors: 07°06’N; 39°46°E.”

Belongs to the Ethiopian endemic C. glass species complex, along with C. afeworkbekelei, C. yaldeni, C. glassi, C. baileyi, C. macmillani, and C. thalia . This species seems to be sister species to C. baileyi, within which it

was previously included. Monotypic.

Distribution. Mt Badda and Bale Mts E of the Rift Valley in C Ethiopia.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 73-92 mm, tail 47-55 mm, ear 9-12 mm, hindfoot 15-17 mm. No specific data are available for body weight. Lucina’s White-toothed Shrew is a medium-sized shrew with long, woolly, soft pelage and a distinctly bicolored body and tail. Dorsal pelage is grayish brown to reddish brown, with gray-based, rufous-tipped hairs; ventral pelageis grayish white, with gray-based, white-tipped hairs. Feet are whitish. Tail is medium in length (62% of head-body length), brown dorsally, whitish ventrally, and hairy, with longer bristle hairs dispersed all over. Braincase inflated, as in other species of montane Ethiopian endemic Crocidura . There are three unicuspids. Chromosomal complement is 2n = 36, FN = 52.

Habitat. Mainly Afro-alpine moorland, but also found in grassland at lower elevations. Elevational range is 3000-4050 m.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. A pregnant female with two embryos was trapped in the late dry season (early March) in the Bale Mountains.

Activity patterns. Lucina’s White-toothed Shrews are terrestrial.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. Although Lucina’s White-toothed Shrew seems to be relatively safe from habitat destruction due to its high-altitude distribution, overgrazing and burning may be major concerns to the species. It occurs in the Bale Mountains National Park. The species does not seem to be very common within its distribution.

Bibliography. Dippenaar (1980a), Hutterer & Yalden (1990), Kennerley & Lavrenchenko (2016b), Lavrenchenko (2013c), Lavrenchenko, Bannikova & Lebedev (2009), Lavrenchenko, Milishnikov et al. (1997), Lavrenchenko, Voyta & Hutterer (2016).