Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai Pallas 1778

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Lagomorpha, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 185-211 : 204

Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai Pallas 1778

Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai Pallas 1778 , Nova Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord.: 17.

Type Locality: "Caeterum in montibus aprecis campisque rupestribus vel arenosis circa Selengam..." Restricted by Ognev (1940:162) to "...valley of the Selenga River...." [ Russia]. According to Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951:430) the type locality is "Adinscholo Mountain, near Tchinden [Chinden = Chindant], on Borsja [Boriya] River, a tributary of the Onon River, Eastern Siberia." This locality is more than 700 km east of the Selenga River.

Vernacular Names: Tolai Hare.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. tolai Pallas 1778

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. aurigineus Hollister 1912

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. buchariensis Ognev 1922

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. cheybani Baloutch 1978

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. cinnamomeus Shamel 1940

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. filchneri Matschie 1907

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. lehmanni Severtsov 1873

Subspecies Lepus (Proeulagus) tolai subsp. swinhoei Thomas 1894

Distribution: Steppes north of Caspian Sea southward along eastern shore of Caspian to E Iran; eastward through Afghanistan; Kazakhstan and S Siberia, Middle Asian republics to Mongolia; and W, C, and NE China.

Conservation: Not Evaluated.

Discussion: Subgenus Proeulagus ( Gureev, 1964:198) . Formerly included in capensis or europaeus ; see comments therein. Formerly included tibetanus ; but also see Bannikov, 1965, Sokolov and Orlov (1980:85), and Shou et al. (1962); Qui (1989) also provided evidence of differentiation of tibetanus but did not address specific status. Formerly included przewalskii, now assigned to L. oiostolus ; see Cai and Feng (1982). "The situation in [southern] Iraq [and SW Iran] deserves a more detailed analysis" ( Angermann, 1983:19). L. tolai cheybani occurs westward to about 55E L. c. arabicus occurs eastward to SE Iraq. Whether the two forms come into contact is not known, but their ranges may be separated by that of L. europaeus connori in SW Iran; see Baloutch (1978) and Angermann (1983).