520. Himalayan Field Mouse Apodemus pallipes

French: Mulot de I'Himalaya / German: Himalaya-\ WWaldmaus / Spanish: Raton de campo del Himalaya Other common names: \ Ward's Field Mouse

Taxonomy. Mus sylvaticus pallipes Barrett-Hamilton, 1900,

Surhad Wakhan, Pamir Altai, E Tajikistan.

Apodemus pallipes was originally described as a subspecies of A. sylvaticus and has also been included in A. wuralensis. Another described subspecies, A. sylvaticus ward: from India and Nepal, was put in synonymy with A. pallipes by G. G. Musser and M. D. Carleton in 2005. A. pallipes was assigned to the Sylvaemus group by Musser and colleagues in 1996, and its morpho-anatomy was revised by S. V. Mezhzherin in 1997. H. Suzuki and coworkers in 2008 found A. pallipes (asA. wardi) to be sister taxon of A. uralensis, a result confirmed in 2015 in molecular phylogeny of J. Darvish and team, and both studies include A. pallipes in the Sylvaemus clade. Monotypic.

Distribution. Afghanistan, S Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, N Pakistan, extreme SW China (Tibet [= Xizang]), NW India, and W Nepal.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 72-110 mm, tail 70-110 mm, ear 14-18 mm, hindfoot 19-22 mm. No specific data are available for body weight. The Himalayan Field Mouse exhibits pale buffy-brown to brownish-gray dorsal pelage and grayish-white venter. Bicolored tail is about as long as head-body length. It is larger and paler-backed than the Herb Field Mouse ( A. uralensis), which is very similar. Females have three pairs of mammae.

Habitat. Coniferous and rhododendronforests at 1465-3965 m.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. Himalayan Field Mice are terrestrial.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

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

Bibliography. Agrawal (2000), Darvish et al. (2015), Mezhzherin (1997), Musser & Carleton (2005), Musser et al. (1996), Smith & Yan Xie (2008), Suzuki et al. (2008).