Calomyscus mystax Kashkarov 1925

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Calomyscidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 926-930 : 929

Calomyscus mystax Kashkarov 1925

Calomyscus mystax Kashkarov 1925 , Trans. Turkestansk. Nauch. ob-va pri Sredniaziatsk. Univ. (Tashkent), 2: 43.

Type Locality: SW Turkmenistan, Bolshoi (= Greater) Balkan Mtn (Nibit-Dag region), Bashi-Mugur.

Vernacular Names: Great Balkhan Calomyscus.

Distribution: SW Turkmenistan: Ersarybaba (= Ersary Ridge) and Greater Balkan Mtns ( Lebedev et al., 1998:723, collection localities 3 and 18).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Samples from Ersarybaba and the type locality have 2n = 44, FN = 46 ( Graphodatsky et al., 2000; Malikov et al., 1999; Meyer and Malikov, 1995, 2000), which led Graphodatsky et al. (2000) to consider of C. mystax as endemic to the Great Balkan Mtns. This chromosomal and geographic distinction is concordant with results from multivariate discriminant analysis of cranial and dental measurements ( Lebedev et al., 1998). Vorontsov’s et al. (1979) broad distributional outline of C. mystax extended from the Greater Balkan Mtns eastward through the Lesser Balkan and Kopet Dag Mtns of S Turkmanistan and extreme NE Iran and westward through NE (Khorassan Prov.) and NC (Mazanderan Prov.) Iran, a range that includes C. elburzensis (which they treated as a synonym of C. mystax ) and C. grandis (which was not included in their study). Meyer and Malikov (1995, 2000) and Pavlinov and Rossilimo (1998) also included the Lesser Balkans and Kopet Dag Mtns within the distribution of C. mystax . Meyer and Malikov (2000) described zykovi as a subspecies of C. mystax , but we include it in C. elburzensis (see above). Reasons for treating C. mystax and C. urartensis as distinct are provided by Meyer and Malikov (1995).