Microtus Schrank 1798

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 989

Microtus Schrank 1798

Microtus Schrank 1798 , Fauna Boica, Vol. 1, 1: 72.

Type Species: Microtus terrestris Schrank 1798

Synonyms: Agricola Blasius 1857 ; Ammomys Bonaparte 1831 ; Arbusticola Shidlovsky 1919 ; Arvalomys Chaline 1974 ; Aulacomys Rhoads 1894 ; Bicunedens Hodgson 1863 ; Campicola Schulze 1890 ; Campicoloma Strand 1928 ; Chilotus Baird 1857 ; Euarvicola Acloque 1899 ; Herpetomys Merriam 1898 ; Iberomys Chaline 1972 ; Isodelta Cope 1871 ; Meridiopitymys Chaline 1974 ; Micrurus Major 1877 ; Oecomicrotus Rabeder 1981 ; Orthriomys Merriam 1898 ; Pallasiinus Kretzoi 1964 ; Parapitymys Chaline 1978 ; Pinemys Lesson 1836 ; Steneocranius Trouessart 1904 ; Sumeriomys Argyropulo 1933 ; Suranomys Chaline 1972 ; Sylvicola Fatio 1867 ; Tetramerodon Rhoads 1894 ; Tibercola Koenigswald, Fejfar, and Tchernov 1992 ; Tyrrhenicola Major 1905 .

Species and subspecies: 62 species in 7 subgenera:

Subgenus Microtus (Microtus) Schrank 1798

Subgenus Microtus (Terricola) Fatio 1867

Subgenus Microtus (Mynomes) Rafinesque 1817

Subgenus Microtus (Alexandromys) Ognev 1914

Subgenus Microtus (Stenocranius) Kastschenko 1901

Subgenus Microtus (Pitymys) McMurtrie 1831

Subgenus Microtus (Pedomys) Baird 1857

Species Microtus abbreviatus Miller 1899

Species Microtus (Microtus) agrestis (Linnaeus 1761)

Species Microtus (Microtus) anatolicus Kryštufek and Kefelioğlu 2002

Species Microtus (Microtus) arvalis (Pallas 1778)

Species Microtus (Terricola) bavaricus Konig 1962

Species Microtus (Terricola) brachycercus Lehmann 1961

Species Microtus (Mynomes) breweri Baird 1857

Species Microtus (Microtus) cabrerae Thomas 1906

Species Microtus californicus Peale 1848

Species Microtus (Mynomes) canicaudus Miller 1897

Species Microtus chrotorrhinus Miller 1894

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) clarkei Hinton 1923

Species Microtus (Terricola) daghestanicus Shidlovsky 1919

Species Microtus (Microtus) dogramacii Kefelioğlu and Kryštufek 1999

Species Microtus (Terricola) duodecimcostatus de Selys-Longchamps 1839

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) evoronensis Kovalskaya and Sokolov 1980

Species Microtus (Terricola) felteni Malec and Storch 1963

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) fortis Büchner 1889

Species Microtus (Terricola) gerbei Gerbe 1879

Species Microtus (Stenocranius) gregalis (Pallas 1779)

Species Microtus guatemalensis Merriam 1898

Species Microtus (Microtus) guentheri Danford and Alston 1880

Species Microtus (Microtus) ilaeus Thomas 1912

Species Microtus (Microtus) irani Thomas 1921

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) kikuchii Kuroda 1920

Species Microtus (Microtus) levis Miller 1908

Species Microtus (Terricola) liechtensteini Wettstein 1927

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) limnophilus Büchner 1889

Species Microtus longicaudus Merriam 1888

Species Microtus (Terricola) lusitanicus Gerbe 1879

Species Microtus (Terricola) majori Thomas 1906

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) maximowiczii Schrenk 1859

Species Microtus mexicanus Saussure 1861

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) middendorffii Poljakov 1881

Species Microtus miurus Osgood 1901

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) mongolicus Radde 1861

Species Microtus (Mynomes) montanus Peale 1848

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) montebelli Milne-Edwards 1872

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) mujanensis Orlov and Kovalskaya 1978

Species Microtus (Terricola) multiplex Fatio 1905

Species Microtus (Pitymys) oaxacensis Goodwin 1966

Species Microtus (Pedomys) ochrogaster Wagner 1842

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) oeconomus (Pallas 1776)

Species Microtus (Mynomes) oregoni Bachman 1839

Species Microtus (Microtus) paradoxus Ognev and Heptner 1928

Species Microtus (Mynomes) pennsylvanicus Ord 1815

Species Microtus (Pitymys) pinetorum Le Conte 1830

Species Microtus (Microtus) qazvinensis Golenishchev 2003

Species Microtus (Pitymys) quasiater Coues 1874

Species Microtus richardsoni DeKay 1842

Species Microtus (Alexandromys) sachalinensis Vasin 1955

Species Microtus (Terricola) savii de Selys-Longchamps 1838

Species Microtus (Terricola) schelkovnikovi Satunin 1907

Species Microtus (Microtus) schidlovskii Argyropulo 1933

Species Microtus (Microtus) socialis (Pallas 1773)

Species Microtus (Terricola) subterraneus de Selys-Longchamps 1836

Species Microtus (Microtus) tatricus Kratochvíl 1952

Species Microtus (Terricola) thomasi Barrett-Hamilton 1903

Species Microtus (Mynomes) townsendii Bachman 1839

Species Microtus (Microtus) transcaspicus Satunin 1905

Species Microtus umbrosus Merriam 1898

Species Microtus xanthognathus Leach 1815

Discussion: Arvicolini. Nowhere are the explosiveness and recency of arvicoline evolution more dramatically highlighted than by the inconsistency of systematic treatment of genus-group taxa to be subsumed by Microtus . Little consensus exists concerning the morphological limits or monophyly of many of these taxa, a situation that partly reflects the overly narrow reliance of our classifications on dental characters undergoing rapid change (see Guthrie, 1971; Koenigswald, 1980). The recency of speciation is another contributory factor— Conroy and Cook (2000 a) dated the major pulse of diversification within Microtus as only 1.3 million years ago. See accounts of Blanfordimys , Chionomys , Lasiopodomys , Neodon , Phaiomys , and Proedromys , often included in Microtus but which are here treated as genera.

North American forms revised by Bailey (1900) and taxonomy updated by Hall and Cockrum (1953) and Hall (1981); many aspects of anatomy, paleontology, taxonomy, and zoogeography covered in Tamarin (1985). See R. A. Martin (1995) for comments on the usage of Pedomys and Pitymys as subgenera of Microtus and classification of fossil forms. The more diverse Palearctic fauna is covered in several comprehensive synopses ( Corbet, 1978 c; Gromov and Erbajeva, 1995; Gromov and Polyakov, 1977; Meyer et al., 1996; Mitchell-Jones et al., 1999; Niethammer and Krapp, 1982 a; Ognev, 1963 b, 1964; Pavlinov et al., 1995 a). See Pozdnyakov (1996) for summary of morphological and chromosomal variation within the subgenus Alexandromys and arrangement of species groups. Fossil Microtus are known from the late Pliocene of Eurasia and North America ( Chaline et al., 1999; McKenna and Bell, 1997; Repenning, 1992; Van der Muelen, 1978). The genus is generally thought to have been derived from the Pliocene Allophaiomys , either directly for some North American and European species ( Chaline et al., 1999; Repenning, 1992) or indirectly through a morphological intermediate similar to Lasiopodomys ( Repenning, 1992) ; Kotlia (1994), on the other hand, suggested direct descent from the Pliocene Mimomys in S Asia.

The Holarctic distribution of Microtus (see map in Gromov and Erbajeva, 1995) has spawned two principal scenarios of zoogeographic interpretation. The traditional notion has emphasized multiple intercontinental dispersals and broad transcontinental distributions of subgenera, a viewpoint more often propounded by paleontologists ( R. A. Martin, 1974, 1987; Repenning, 1980, 1983, 1992, 1998; Repenning et al., 1990; Van der Muelen, 1978). An alternative hypothesis stresses one or two intercontinental dispersions and extensive regional cladogenesis; such a viewpoint has gained more credence, emerging from studies of allozymes ( Chaline and Graf, 1988; Graf, 1982; Moore and Janecek, 1990), chromosomes ( Zagorodnyuk, 1990), mitochondrial DNA ( Conroy and Cook, 1999, 2000 a; Conroy et al., 2001), and fossils ( Brunet-Lecomte and Chaline, 1991, 1992; Chaline, 1974; Chaline et al., 1999; Kryštufek et al., 1996; R. A. Martin, 1995). According to these collective results, pitymyine forms in the Old World ( Terricola ) differentiated independently of those in the New World ( Pedomys , Pitymys ); New World common voles ( Mynomes ) are cladistically separated from Old World subgenera such as Microtus proper, Alexandromys , and Agricola ; and the invasion of the New World semiaquatic niche is recognized (subgenus Aulacomys ) as independent of the Old World water‑vole radiation (genus Arvicola ). See especially Conroy and Cook (2000 a) for review of these hypotheses and comments on taxonomy and biogeography .