Lepus mandshuricus Radde, 1861

Jo, Yeong-Seok, Baccus, John T. & Koprowski, John L., 2018, Mammals of Korea: a review of their taxonomy, distribution and conservation status, Zootaxa 4522 (1), pp. 1-216 : 13

Lepus mandshuricus Radde, 1861 —Manchurian Hare

Lepus mandshuricus Radde, 1861 p.684 ; Type locality-Mt. Bureja, eastern Siberia; Jones & Johnson, 1965 p.363; Corbet, 1978 p.74; Han, 1994 p.46; Won & Smith, 1999 p.28; Han, 2004b p.101.

L. europaeus mandshuricus: Tate, 1947 p.205 .

L. brachyurus: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.442 .

L. brachyurus mandshuricus: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.442 .

Range: The Manchurian hare has a limited distribution in extreme northern Korea through Pyeonganbuk Province, Jagang Province, Ryanggang Province, and Hamgyeongbuk Province ( Kim et al. 2015; Fig. 5 ).

Remarks: The taxonomic assignment of the Manchurian hare ( L. mandshuricus ) has fluctuated. Sowerby (1923, 1933) and Loukashkin (1943) recognized this hare as a separate species, while Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) placed it as a subspecies of the Japanese hare L. brachyurus , because of similarities in characteristics of the teeth and cranial measurements. Wu et al. (2005) supported a species status based on the inferred phylogenetic relationships and the mean maximum likelihood distance on the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b, 12S, partial ND4 and control region fragments between the Manchurian hare and Japanese hare (0.197).

In addition, mammalogists confused Lepus mandshuricus with L. coreanus . Jones and Johnson (1965) found specimens of L. mandshuricus identified as L. coreanus . Won (1967) listed L. coreanus as the only species of hare in Korea; whereas, Won (1968) reported L. mandshuricus as the only species in Korea. However, nuclear and mitochondrial analyses supported L. mandshuricus as a distinct species from L. timidus and L. coreanus ( Koh & Jang 2010) .

Figures

FIGURE 5. Range map of Lepus mandshuricus in Korea.