Alticola Blanford, 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 : 502

Alticola Blanford, 1881 . J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 50:96.

TYPE SPECIES: Arvicola stoliczkanus Blanford, 1875 .

SYNONYMS: Aschizomys, Platycranius .

COMMENTS: Hinton's (1926) monograph remains one of the best overall reviews of the genus, as supplemented by the morphological studies of Rossolimo et al. (1988) and Rossolimo (1989) and the cytogenetic results of Hielscher et al. (1992). Schwarz (1939) also reviewed the Himalayan species. We follow Gromov and Polyakov (1977), along with Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987), in recognizing the subgenera Alticola , Aschizomys , and Platycranius. DNA-DNA hybridization studies indicated that Alticola macrotis is a sister species of Clethrionomys rufocanus and that A. argentatus is phylogenetically closer to C. rutilus and C. glareolus than to A. macrotis ( Gileva et al., 1989). Alticola is broadly related to Clethrionomys, an affinity Hooper and Hart (1962) acknowledged by placing Alticola with Clethrionomys, Eothenomys, Hyperacrius, Dolomys , and Phenacomys in the tribe Clethrionomyini, a division also recognized by Gromov and Polyakov (1977). Comparative study of appendicular myology and osteology reinforces the monophyly of Alticola and its close association with Clethrionomys and Eothenomys ( Stein, 1987).