Niviventer confucianus (Milne-Edwards, 1871)

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 633

Niviventer confucianus (Milne-Edwards, 1871) . Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, 7, Bull.:93.

TYPE LOCALITY: China, Szechwan, Moupin .

DISTRIBUTION: N Burma, N Thailand, and highlands of China north to Jilin Prov.; limits uncertain.

SYNONYMS: canorus, chihliensis, elegans , littoreus, luticolor, mentosus , naoniuensis, sacer, sinianus, yaoshanensis, yushuensis, zappeyi .

COMMENTS: Wang and Zheng (1981) reported results from a systematic study under the name of Rattus niviventer , and described yushuensis as a subspecies. Zhang and Zhao (1984) proposed naoniuensis as a subspecies. Usually included in N. niviventer , but that allocation is not supported by present evidence ( Abe, 1983; Musser, 1981b). Geographic and elevational relationships between northern N. confucianus and southern N. fulvescens , especially in W and S China, needs to be resolved by careful taxonomic revision.