Microtus rossiaemeridionalis Ognev, 1924

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 : 529

Microtus rossiaemeridionalis Ognev, 1924 . Gryzuny Servernogo Kavkaza, Rostov-on-Don, [Rodentia N. Caucasus] p. 27.

TYPE LOCALITY: Russia, Bobrov subdistrict of Voronej Govt., Novii Kurlak (after Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951:698) .

DISTRIBUTION: From Finland east through Russia to Urals, south to region just north of the Caucusus and through the Ukraine to Rumania, Bulgaria, S Yugoslavia, N Greece, and NW Turkey (see Petrov and Ruzic, 1982; Zagorodnyuk, 1991b; Zima et al, 1991); introduced to Svalbard (see Fredga et al., 1990).

SYNONYMS: caspicus, epiroticus, ghalgai, mutilisi, relictus, rhodopensis, subarvalis .

COMMENTS: Subgenus Microtus , arvalis species group. This is the species (with 2N=54, FN=56) that was listed as M. subarvalis or epiroticus by Corbet (1978c, 1984) and reviewed under the latter name by Petrov and Ruzic (1982). Cytological and morphological comparisons to M. arvalis and M. obscurus underscore the specific distinctness of M. rossiaemeridionalis ( Gavrila et al., 1986; Krâl et al., 1981; Kratochvil, 1982b; Naumova et al., 1990; Zagorodnyuk, 1991a, b; Zima et al., 1991). The geographic ranges of A4, arvalis and A4, rossiaemeridionalis broadly overlap (see Zagorodnyuk, 1991b:30). The record (as epiroticus) from Svalbard is documented by Fredga et al. (1990), who suggested that the voles were introduced.