Spalax graecus Nehring, 1898

Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 501-755 : 755

Spalax graecus Nehring, 1898 . Zool. Anz., 21:228.

TYPE LOCALITY: Ukraine, Bukovina region, vicinity of Chernovtsy (as restriced by Topachevskii, 1969) .

DISTRIBUTION: Romania and SW Ukraine (see Topachevskii, 1969; Savie, 19824).

SYNONYMS: antiquus , istricus , mezosegiensis .

COMMENTS: Included in S. microphthalmus by Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) and Corbet (1978c), but arranged as a distinctive species by Topachevskii (1969) and so listed by Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987). Savie (19824) reviewed in detail the European segment. Topachevskii (1969) recognized istricus , apparently restricted to Rumania, as a subspecies, and Murariu and Torcea (1984) separated it as a species based on cranial traits. Their sample, however, was small, and variation of the traits believed to discriminate istricus from S. graecus should be reassessed using larger samples from both Rumania and the Ukraine.