523.

South China Field Mouse

Apodemus draco

French: Mulot dragon / German: Stidchina-Waldmaus / Spanish: Raton de campo de China meridional

Taxonomy. Mus sylvaticus draco Barrett Hamilton, 1900,

Kuatun, NW Fujian, China.

Placed in the Apodemus group by G. G. Musser and colleagues in 1996, A. dracowas confirmed as belonging to this group and close to A. agrarius by H. Suzuki and colleagues in 2008. The most recent molecular phylogeny, by Liu Qi and team in 2012, placed it in a “ draco subgroup” along with A. latronum and A. semotus . Various studies highlighted the important genetic diversity among the A. draco (sensu lato) species group and suggested that A. ilex could represent a valid speciesas sister of A. draco (sensu stricto), but this was not followed by Musser and Carleton in their 2005 treatment. Liu and coworkers in 2012 confirmed that A. lex is valid on basis only of a complete cytochrome-b phylogeny. Y. Kaneko in 2015 found a clinal morphometric variability in populations from North to South China, but indicated that small genetic distance between A. draco and A. ilex is not at species level. Since no nuclear genes have been analyzed, and in absence of any morphological characters to distinguish A. ilex from A. draco, the classic view is retained here pending refined molecular, genomic, and morphometric analyses that may reveal diagnostic characters and shed light on cryptic diversity in the A. draco species complex. Taxonomy requires further investigation.

Distribution. NE India (Arunachal Pradesh), N &WC Myanmar, and China (E Tibet [= Xizang] and Yunnan E to Hebei and Fujian).

Descriptive notes. Head-body 87-106 mm, tail 80-132 mm, ear 15-19 mm, hindfoot 20-23 mm. No specific data are available for body weight. Dorsal pelage of the South China Field Mouse is pale reddish-brown and becomes more yellow on flanks and grayish white on underside. Tail is equalto orslightly longer (110%) than head-body length. Ears are darker than rest of head and back. Females bear four pairs of mammae.

Habitat. Evergreen and mountain forests at up to c. 3815 m elevation.

Food and Feeding. The South China Field Mouse is probably omnivorous;it is known to eat and store seeds.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. South China Field Mice are terrestrial and probably nocturnal.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Home ranges ofadult males reach 4000-5000 m? and those of females 2200-2600 m?.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List.

Bibliography. Agrawal (2000), Corbet (1978), Corbet & Hill (1992), Gu Xiaodong et al. (2009), Jiang Xuelong & Wang Yingxiang (2000), Kaneko (2010, 2012, 2015), Liu Qi etal. (2012), Liu Xiaoming et al. (2004), Musser & Carleton (2005), Musser et al. (1996), Smith & Yan Xie (2008), Suzuki et al. (2008).