Sorex Linnaeus, 1758 . Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1:53.

TYPE SPECIES: Sorex araneus Linnaeus, 1758 .

SYNONYMS: Amphisorex, Atophyrax, Corsira, Eurosorex, Homalurus, Microsorex, Musaraneus, Neosorex, Ognevia, Otisorex, Oxyrhin, Soricidus, Stroganovia .

COMMENTS: Type genus of Soricidae . The systematic relationships of a large number of Holarctic species were studied by George (1988); her proposals for subgeneric allocation are mainly followed here. Keys and/or reviews are available for the species of various geographical areas: Canada (van Zyll de Jong, 1983a); North and Middle America (Junge and Hoffmann, 1981; Carraway, 1990); China (Hoffmann, 1987); Siberia (Yudin, 1989); and Europe (Niethammer and Krapp, 1990). Microsorex was formerly regarded as a full genus, then reduced to a subgenus of Sorex by Diersing (1980b), and is now regarded as a synonym of subgenus Otisorex (see George, 1988). The subgenus Amphisorex (type species Sorex hermanni Duvernoy, 1834) was alternatively listed under Sorex and Neomys by Miller (1912a), Ellermann and Morrison-Scott (1951), and Corbet (1978c). Miller (1912a) stated that the type of Sorex hermanni consisted of a skin of Sorex araneus and a skull of Neomys fodiens. To avoid further confusion, I herewith designate the skin of Sorex hermanni Duvernoy, 1834 as the lectotype, thus making hermanni a synonym of araneus, and Amphisorex a synonym of Sorex. Besides subgenera a number of species groups have been distinguished such as the araneus-arcticus group (Meylan and Hausser, 1973; Hausser et al., 1985), the cinereus group (van Zyll de Jong, 19916), and the vagrans group (Carraway, 1990), the boundaries and contents of which are still highly controversial. Old World species of Sorex were reviewed by Dannelid (19916) who provided a phylogenetic hypothesis of relationships.