Crocidura muricauda (G. S. Miller, 1900)
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.6870843 |
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DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6870440 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/3D474A54-A0AE-87C2-FAE2-AF401A85F5F7 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Crocidura muricauda |
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West African White-toothed Shrew
Crocidura muricauda View in CoL
French: Crocidure a queue de souris / German: Westafrika-Langschwanz-Weifszahnspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana de Africa occidental
Other common names: Mouse-tailed Shrew, West African Long-tailed Shrew
Taxonomy. Myosorex muricauda G. S. Miller, 1900 ,
Mount Coffee , Liberia.
Although C. muricauda is often considered conspecific with C. dolichura , it is considered sister to C. douceti and in the C. olwieri group here and not closely related to C. dolichura . Monotypic.
Distribution. West Africa in Sierra Leone, SE Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and S Ghana. View Figure
Descriptive notes. Head—body 56-66 mm, tail 62-95 mm, ear 8:5—10 mm, hindfoot 11-8-13 mm; weight 3-8 g. The West African White-toothed Shrew is small, with large hairs, long tail, and soft pelage. Dorsal pelage is grayish brown (hairs are gray-based with brown tips). Ventral pelage is whitish gray (hairs are gray-based with whitish tips). Ears are large and more or less naked. Feet are flesh-colored and sparsely covered with short white hairs. Tail is 120-150% of head-body length, pale brown, and covered with short hairs. Skull is long and narrow, braincase is rounded when viewed dorsally and inflated when viewed laterally, rostrum is slender, I' are small, upper dentition is weak, and M’ is large. There are three unicuspids.
Habitat. Primary rainforests, secondary forests, plantations, and fields.
Food and Feeding. West African White-toothed Shrews eat a large variety of invertebrates, including spiders (55% frequency), ants (44%), crickets (23%), Blattodea (14%), adult beetles (14%), and lepidopteran larvae (9%). Most prey is less than 10 mm in length.
Breeding. No information.
Activity patterns. The West African White-toothed Shrew seems to be scansorial.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The West African White-toothed Shrew has a wide distribution and faces no major threats, although it is considered uncommon.
Bibliography. Barriere et al. (2008), Churchfield et al. (2004), Demey (2008), Grubb et al. (1998), Heim de Balsac (1974), Hutterer & Howell (2016), Jacquet et al. (2013), Vogel et al. (2013).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
