Apodemus arianus (Blandord, 1881)

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 : 570

Apodemus arianus (Blandord, 1881) . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, 7:162.

TYPE LOCALITY: N Persia ( Iran), Kohrud .

DISTRIBUTION: From N Iran west through Iraq to Lebanon and N Israel (see Harrison and Bates, 1991); limits unknown.

SYNONYMS: erythronotus , witherbyi .

COMMENTS: Subgenus Sylvaemus . Usually listed as a subspecies of A. sylvaticus ( Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951: Harrison and Bates, 1991), we separate it on the basis of its distinctive pelage and smaller body size. Both arianus and a larger, darker form (possibly wardi ) occur in N Iran, although Lay (1967:186) considered them ecological subspecies. The relationship between arianus , wardi , and the small A. uralensis requires taxonomic resolution. A. arianus may be the species represented by the sample from Qazvin, N Iraq, that Darviche et al. (1979) separated electrophoretically from A. sylvaticus and A. flavicollis , but still considered closer to the latter. Vorontsov et al. (1992) included arianus in A. uralensis .