Crocidura russula (Hermann, 1780) . In Zimmermann, Geogr. Gesch. Mensch. Vierf. Thiere, 2:382.

TYPE LOCALITY: France, Bas Rhin, near Strasbourg .

DISTRIBUTION: S and W Europe including some Atlantic island off France; Mediterranean islands (Ibiza, Sardinia, Pantelleria?); N Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia).

SYNONYMS: albiventris, agilis, anthonyi, candidus, chaouianensis, chrysothorax, cinereus, cintrae, constrictus, fimbriatus, foucauldi, heljanensis, hydruntina, ibicensis, ichnusae, inodorus, leucurus, major, moschata, musaraneus, peta, poliogastra, pulchra, rufa, safii, thoracicus, unicolor, yebalensis.

COMMENTS: Reviewed by Genoud and Hutterer (1990). The species is confined to W Europe and N Africa. Many populations from Asia and even Africa have been erroneously assigned to russula (see Ellermann and Morrison-Scott, 1951). Allozyme and karyotype analyses by Catzeflis et al. (1985) have shown that animals from E Europe, Asia Minor and Israel formerly identified as russula instead belong to suaveolens . This may also be true for other populations further east. Does not include hosletti, rapax, or vorax (see Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1966:81; Jameson and Jones, 1977:465), which are here included in dsinezumi and pullata, respectively. May include cossyrensis; see under that species.