Sorex thibetanus Kastschenko 1905

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Soricomorpha, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 220-311 : 297

Sorex thibetanus Kastschenko 1905

Sorex thibetanus Kastschenko 1905 , Izv. Tomsk. Univ., 27: 93.

Type Locality: "Tsaidam" [NE Tibet, China].

Vernacular Names: Tibetan Shrew.

Distribution: Himalyas and NE Tibet.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: The pygmy shrews of the Himalayas are still a subject of controversy. The original description of thibetanus (as a subspecies of minutus ) is not very informative; the holotype in the Tomsk Academy was considered to be lost (Yudin, pers. comm. 1977), which is why Hutterer (1979) regarded thibetanus as a nomen dubium. Dolgov and Hoffmann (1977) and later Hoffmann (1987) used thibetanus to define a Himalayan species in which they included buchariensis , kozlovi , planiceps , and specimens from Nepal and China reported as minutus by various authors. Hutterer (1979) instead recognized three species, buchariensis , planiceps , and minutus as occurring in the Himalayas and regarded kozlovi and thibetanus as indeterminable. Zaitsev (1988) pointed out differences between buchariensis and thibetanus . Surprisingly, the holotype of thibetanus turned up in the Zoological Museum of Moscow ( Baranova et al., 1981) and Hoffmann (1987) reported on its measurements. Hoffmann (1996 a, b) provided a distribution map for all known specimens of thibetanus , kozlovi , buchariensis , and planiceps , which he understood as subspecies of S. thibetanus . However, in the light of drastic size and tooth shape differences among these taxa, and in the light of subtle differences between better-known small Sorex species ( minutus and volnuchini , caecutiens and shinto ), I prefer to list buchariensis , kozlovi , planiceps , and thibetanus as separate species until a more complete analysis is available.