Lemmiscus Thomas 1912

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 985

Lemmiscus Thomas 1912

Lemmiscus Thomas 1912 , Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 9: 401.

Type Species: Arvicola curtata Cope 1868

Species and subspecies: 1 species:

Species Lemmiscus curtatus (Cope 1868)

Discussion: Arvicolini. Named as a subgenus of Lagurus to segregate New World sagebrush voles from Old World steppe voles. Davis (1939) underscored the morphological separation between New and Old World forms and raised Lemmiscus to a genus, a view endorsed by Carleton’s (1981) study of gastric anatomy. Subsequent faunal studies and checklists have variously listed Lemmiscus as a genus ( Carleton and Musser, 1984; Corbet and Hill, 1991; Gromov and Polyakov, 1977; Musser and Carleton, 1993) or as a subgenus of Lagurus ( Hall, 1981; Honacki et al., 1982). Certain morphological traits associate Lemmiscus with Microtus ( Carleton, 1981; Davis, 1939), a relationship supported by phylogenetic evaluation of long repetitive DNA segments ( Modi, 1996); chromosomal banding patterns provided little resolution of its affinity ( Modi, 1987). Some paleontologists continue to view New World sagebrush voles as lagurines that migrated to North America in the Pleistocene ( Chaline, 1985; Chaline et al., 1999); Repenning (1992), however, considered the dental similarities between Lemmiscus and Microtus sufficiently impressive to warrant their joint placement in a tribe Microtini . Taxonomic representation necessary to discriminate the migration scenario from autochthonous differentiation in the New World has yet to be realized in recent molecular studies.