511.

Striped Field Mouse

Apodemus agrarius

French: Mulot rayé / German: Brandmaus / Spanish: Raton de campo listado

Taxonomy. Mus agrarius Pallas, 1771,

Ulianovsk, middle Volga River, Russia.

The constitution of A. agrarius has varied following different morphological and mo-lecular revisions, as outlined in 2005 by G. G. Musser and M. D. Carleton.It is placed in subgenus Apodemus . Study by Liu Qi and colleagues in 2012 found thatit belongs to a clade that includes also A. semotus, A. peninsulae, and A. chevrieri . A phylogeographic study showed existence of eleven distinct

lineages in the species throughout eastern part of its range. Monotypic.

Distribution. Disjunct range in C & E Europe (from Denmark, Germany, and N & NE Italy) E to SC Siberia and NW China (Xinjiang), and in Russian Far East, extreme E Mongolia, E & C China, N Myanmar, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan (Senkaku Is).

Descriptive notes. Head—body 75-120 mm, tail 65-115 mm, ear 12-15 mm, hindfoot 17-22 mm; weight 16-38 g. The Striped Field Mouseis a small rodent. It has yellow to reddish-brown dorsal pelage and a more or less distinct black mid-dorsalstripe, with underside grayish white. Tail is equal to or slightly shorter or longerthan head-body length and is bicolored. Females bear four pairs of mammae. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 48, FNa = 54.

Habitat. Striped Field Mice prefer edges of forest or woodland. They are found also in cultivated fields, gardens, reedbeds, and marshes, and sometimes enter barns and buildings in autumn. In Serbia, where they are typical of agricultural field—forest habitat mosaic, a microhabitat study showed that this species non-randomly selects habitats with dense shrub layer and very dense Rubus hirtus ( Rosaceae) undergrowth with little or no tree-canopy cover. They live at up to 1750 m in Macedonia.

Food and Feeding. Diet consists of seeds, buds,fruits, and berries in variable proportions, supplemented by insects, worms, and mollusks.

Breeding. Reproduction occursin spring and summer.Litter size is 1-10 (average 5-5).

Activity patterns. Striped Field Mice are terrestrial, and diurnal or crepuscular. Climbing activity is moderate compared with that of congeners. They dig simple underground burrows of 30-40 cm depth, with nest chamberlined with dry plants, and with three or four entrances.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. The Striped Field Mouse is an active, non-aggressive rodent. A study in Serbia from 1997 to 2000 showed that populations fluctuate, with peak numbers recorded in April (21 ind/ha) and September (32 ind/ha). Recaptures gave mean observed travel distances of 40-6 m for males and 30 m for females. Home ranges varied from 100 m? to 2400 m? (average for males 716 m?, for females 585 m?), with no significant difference between sexes.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Striped Field Mouse exhibits irregular population explosions, and may be a pest to agriculture.

Bibliography. Aulagnier et al. (2009), Krystufek & Vohralik (2009), Liu Qi et al. (2012), Musser & Carleton (2005), Smith & Yan Xie (2008), Vukicevi¢-Radic¢ et al. (2006).