Myodes rutilus ( Pallas, 1778 )

Jo, Yeong-Seok, Baccus, John T. & Koprowski, John L., 2018, Mammals of Korea: a review of their taxonomy, distribution and conservation status, Zootaxa 4522 (1), pp. 1-216 : 178

Myodes rutilus ( Pallas, 1778) —Northern Red-backed Vole

Mus rutilus Pallas, 1778 p.246 ; Type locality- Center of Ob River delta, Siberia, Russia.

Arvicola (Hypudaeus) amurensis Schrenck, 1858 p.129 ; Type locality- Mouth of Amur River, Siberia .

Clethrionomys rutilus hintoni Vinogradov in Zolotarev, 1936 p.81; Type locality- Iman River, Ussuri, southeastern Siberia; Jones & Johnson, 1965 p.375.

C. amurensis amurensis: Kuroda, 1938 p.5 .

C. rutilus: Won, 1968 p.207 ; Corbet, 1978 p.98; Han, 1994 p.47; Won & Smith, 1999 p.25; Han, 2004c p.134.

C. rutilus amurensis: Won, 1968 p.208 ; Yoon, 1992 p.74.

Myodes rutilus: Musser & Carleton, 2005 p.1027 .

Range: Myodes rutilus occurs in the extreme northeastern region of the Korean Peninsula ( Fig. 121 ). The southern limit of the range is in Chail Peak, Ryanggang-Province ( Kim et al. 2015).

Remarks: The northern red-backed vole in Korea has been regarded as M. r. hintoni or M. r. amurensis . Although hintoni is now considered a synonym of amurensis ( Won 1968) , a re-examination of the subspecific status for Korean populations of Myodes rutilus seems necessary due to considerable local variation such as shorter tail with long hairs on a floccus ( Won 1968). In northeastern Asia, four lineages of M. rutilus (central Siberia, fareastern Siberia, Alaska-Kamchatka/Sakhalin and Hokkaido) were identified by using cytochrome b ( Iwasa et al. 2002). Kohli et al. (2015) analyzed the same gene and confirmed similar lineages (western = central Siberia; central = far eastern Siberia; and eastern clade with 3 subgroups, Bering, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido), but nuclear gene analysis showed poor structuring among lineages.

Figures

FIGURE 121. Range map of Myodes rutilus in Korea.