Lepus mandshuricus Radde, 1861

Robert S. Hoffmann, 1993, Order Lagomorpha, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 807-827 : 818-819

Lepus mandshuricus Radde, 1861 . Melanges Biol. Acad. St. Petersbourg, 3:684.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Im Chy(Gebirge)" Bureya Mtns [Khabarovsk Krai, Russia] .

DISTRIBUTION: Ussuri region ( Russia); NE China; extreme NE Korea.

STATUS: Undetermined.

SYNONYMS: melainus Li and Luo, 1979; melanonotus Ognev, 1922.

COMMENTS: Distinct from brachyurus ; see Angermann (1966, 1983); but placed in Caprolagus (Allolagus) brachyurus by Gureev (1964:150); followed by Gromov and Baranova (1981:63). Melanic individuals known since at least the time of Sowerby (1923) have recently been given the specific designation melainus ( Li and Luo, 1979). The range of this taxon is entirely within that of mandshuricus , and I provisionally retain them in that species, although Flux and Angermann (1990) recognized melainus. L. mandshuricus and L. coreanus are parapatric in distribution in NE Korea /SE Heilungjiang, but are described as occupying different habitats; the former, mixed forest in hilly country, the latter, both forest and cultivated land, primarily in the plains ( Flux and Angermann, 1990). Moreover, mandshuricus is sympatric with another forest species, timidus , and with the plains species, tolai ; as forest is cleared, tolai tends to replace mandshuricus ( Flux and Angermann, 1990) . L. mandshuricus , L. timidus and L. tolai all occur in the area occupied by the taxon melainus; four species of sympatric hares, three of them forest-dwellers, is unprecedented in hare ecology, and supports the view that melainus is not a distinct species.