Sorex asper Thomas, 1914 . Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 13:565.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Thian-shan [Tien-shan], Tekes Valley". Note on type specimen tag says "Jigalong" (= Dzhergalan?, see Hoffmann, 1987:119); Narynko'skii r-n., Alma-Ata Obi., Kazakhstan .

DISTRIBUTION: Tien Shan Mountains (Kazakhstan and Sinkiang, China).

COMMENTS: Subgenus Sorex . Type locality discussed by Hoffmann (1987) and Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987). Does not include excelsus as suggested by Corbet (1978c); see under that species. Reviewed by Hoffmann (1987), who discussed the relationship between asper and tundrensis .