Crocidura nicobarica Miller, 1902

Rangasamy, V., Raghunathan, C. & Chandra, Kailash, 2019, Observation on the re-occurrence of Nicobar spiny shrew (Crocidura nicobarica Miller, 1902): A critically endangered mammal of Great Nicobar Island, India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 119 (1), pp. 49-54 : 50-51

Crocidura nicobarica Miller, 1902

Material examined: One sexually matured female, length 20.5 cm, Reg.No.ZSI/ANRC-2887.

Taxonomic remarks: Crocidura nicobarica is endemic to Great Nicobar Island and there is no other species reported so far in this sub family from Nicobar group of islands.

Morphological Features

It was very shy and fast moving animal in the field

Fur: Very dense pelagic fur, middle of the body has slightly spiny hairs sized 6 mm in length and its looks like bristle interspersed with few longer thin hairs. The ventral side fur is very dense, short and soft. Short, velvety furs covered on the part of lower jaw. Long and black colored Vibrissae are present in the upper jaw ( Plate 1 )

Colour: The color pattern differs between the dorsal and ventral surface. The dorsal surface is olive brown, silver colour reflected by light on hairs. Ears faintly dark brownish, tail and feet are uniformly pale brown color. In ventral, chest is sooty brown; between the hind limb light brownish washed with gray color. ( Figure 1 ).

Tail: Tail unicolored, Bristle hairs sparsely present in two third of the tail. Tip of the tail is not sharper ( Plate 1 )

Mammary glands: There are two inguinal mammary glands on each side. Looks like two separate spots without surrounding hairs.

Head: Head and snout sized 3.6 cm. Snout has numerous long black hairs on both sides, the tip of the snout is divided into two, nostrils open at tip of the snout. The eyes are very small, naked, without eyebrow. Ears have small outer pinna covered with short brownish fur on its outer surface Skull and Dentition

The skull is characterized by slightly domed braincase and slender rostrum. Inter- orbital region is shorter. Pair of upper incisor is larger than other succeeded teeth. The genus Crocidura is characterized by the possession of three upper unicuspid teeth, unicuspids are heavy. First unicuspid is slightly larger than other two. The second and third are sub-equal in size. Premolar and molar edges are not overlapped. The third molar tooth is medium in size. The third molar teeth is consistently small than other ( Plate 2 )

Comparison

The comparative morphological features of two species of Crocidura such as Crocidura andamanensis and Crocidura nicobarica are given in Table 1 and 2. Morphometry of this species is distinguishable among the other species of Crocidura known from oriental region. Miller noted that Crocidura nicobarica is distinct by its very large size, sooty brown colour pattern. Hence, Miller, 1902 placed this animal in separate species designation. Skull and dentition clearly shows that the specimen was not from the genus Suncus . Three upper unicuspids teeth are distinguished characters of this genus Crocidura . The skull has consistently different measurements (See Table 1 ). Morphological characters such as dorsal sooty brown color, interspersed spiny silvery hairs and white long hairs on tail distinguished this species from other genus. Comparable cranial measurements and similar morphological characters with the description of Miller, 1902 strongly support this species comes under the genus Crocidura and must be consider as possible the species Crocidura nicobarica represented from Great Nicobar island.

Figures

Plate 1. Crocidura nicobarica Microscopic structure a) Fore limb, b) Hind limb, c) Tip of tail, d) Dorsal fur, e) Long black hairs in snout, f) Long white hairs in tail and g) White tooth.

Figure 1. Field photograph of Crocidura nicobarica Miller, 1902.

Plate 2. The skull and dentition of Crocidura nicobarica in Dorsal, ventral, microscopic view.