Cricetulus migratorius (Pallas, 1773) . Reise Prov. Russ. Reichs., 2:703.

TYPE LOCALITY: W Kazakhstan, lower Ural River .

DISTRIBUTION: S European Russia and SE Europe (Greece, Rumania, Bulgaria) through Kazakhstan to S Mongolia and N China (Xinjiang, Ningxia; Qin, 1991), north nearly to Moscow, south to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey.

SYNONYMS: accedula, arenarius, atticns, bellicosus, caesius, cinerascens, cinereus, coerulescens, elisarjewi, falzfeini, fulvus, griseiventris (Thomas, 1917, not Satunin, 1903); griseus (Kashkarov, 1923, not Milne-Edwards, 1867), isabellinus, murinus, myosurus, neglectus, ognevi, pamirensis, phaeus, pulcher, sviridenkoi, tauricus, vernula, zvierezombi.

COMMENTS: Taxonomy, morphology, distribution, fossils, and biology summarized for European segment by Niethammer (1982d).