Dicrostonyx groenlandicus (Traill 1823)

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 : 971

Dicrostonyx groenlandicus (Traill 1823)

[Dicrostonyx] groenlandicus (Traill 1823) , in: Scoresby, J. Voy. to Northern Whale-Fishery ...: 416.

Type Locality: Greenland, Jamesons Land.

Vernacular Names: Nearctic Collared Lemming.

Synonyms: Dicrostonyx alascensis Stone 1900 ; Dicrostonyx clarus Handley 1953 ; Dicrostonyx kilangmiutak Anderson and Rand 1945 ; Dicrostonyx lentus Handley 1953 ; Dicrostonyx rubricatus (Richardson 1889) .

Distribution: N Greenland and Queen Elizabeth Isls, islands in the District of Franklin, and Southampton Isl; N North America above treeline, from NE District of Keewatin, Canada, to N Alaska, USA.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as D. groenlandicus , D. kilangmiutak , and D. rubricatus .

Discussion: In their broad specific concept, Jarrell and Fredga (1993) viewed all North American taxa, except D. hudsonius , as junior synonyms, including the insular forms exsul and vinogradovi . Morphological, distributional, breeding, chromosomal, and-or molecular evidence, albeit uneven and incomplete, persuades us to maintain D. nelsoni , D. nunatakensis , D. richardsoni , D. unalascensis , and D. vinogradovi as distinct (see those accounts).

Standard and banded chromosomal comparisons reported by Borowik and Engstrom (1993), who supported the synonymy of clarus and lentus . Engstrom et al. (1993) reported kilangmiutak (2n = 47-50) as karyotypically separable from D. groenlandicus (2n = 38-44), calling them "cytospecies," but found the two to be only marginally differentiated in mitochrondrial DNA sequences; samples drawn from the range of kilangmiutak are morphometrically ( Eger, 1995) and genetically ( Ehrich et al., 2000) unremarkable in comparisons with D. groenlandicus proper. The form rubricatus (Beringian distribution) shares a distinctive XY-autosomal fusion pattern with D. groenlandicus (Pearyland distribution), different from that found in D. richardsoni ( Borowik and Engstrom, 1993) ; levels of differentiation in cranial form ( Eger, 1995) and nucleotide sequences ( Ehrich et al., 2000) provide no persuasive evidence for specific separation of rubricatus , although the latter study did disclose weakly defined western and eastern clades divided by the Mackenzie River .