Dicrostonyx torquatus (Pallas 1778)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 973

Dicrostonyx torquatus (Pallas 1778)

[Mus] torquatus Pallas 1778 , Nova Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord.: 206.

Type Locality: Russia, Siberia, mouth of Ob River.

Vernacular Names: Palearctic Collared Lemming.

Synonyms: Dicrostonyx chionopaes G. M. Allen 1914 ; Dicrostonyx lenae ( Kerr 1792) ; Dicrostonyx lenensis (Pallas 1779) ; Dicrostonyx pallida (Middendorff 1853) ; Dicrostonyx ungulatus (Von Baer 1841) .

Distribution: Palearctic tundra from White Sea, W Russia, to Chukotski Peninsula, NE Siberia, and Kamchatka ( Nikanorov, 2000); including Novaya Zemlya and New Siberian isls, Arctic Ocean ( Corbet, 1978 c; Jarrell and Fredga, 1993:Fig. 5).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Once believed to encompass most or all New World populations (e.g., Rausch, 1953, 1963 b), but karyotypic and breeding evidence (summarized by Jarrell and Fredga, 1993) supports the strict application of D. torquatus for only Eurasian populations (also see Fedorov et al., 1999 a). Chromosomal traits of populations from the Polar Urals ( torquatus ), and those from the Laptev Sea coast, and Rautan Isl off the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula ( chionopaes ) are similar, and crosses between these two subspecies yield fertile progeny (Gileva, 1980). Unusual sex-chromosome constitution and other chromosomal information summarized by Gileva et al. (1980), Gileva (1983), and Zima and Král (1984). Phylogeographic clades identified from restriction-site analysis of mitochrondrial DNA are mostly congruent with chromosomal races ( Fedorov et al., 1999 a). Although absent from Great Britain’s modern fauna, the species occurred there during Pleistocene and Last Glacial (Late Palaeolithic) times ( Sutcliffe and Kowalski, 1976; Yalden, 1999).