Myospalax aspalax Pallas 1776

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Spalacidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 907-926 : 911

Myospalax aspalax Pallas 1776

Myospalax aspalax Pallas 1776 , Reise Prov. Russ. Reichs, Vol. 3: 692.

Type Locality: Russia, Transbaikalia, Dauuria ("Doldogo, on Onon River, below Atchinsk," Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951:652).

Vernacular Names: Steppe Zokor.

Synonyms: Myospalax armandii ( Milne-Edwards 1867) ; Myospalax dybowskii Sherskey 1873 ; Myospalax hangaicus ( Orlov and Baskevich 1992) ; Myospalax talpinus ( Pallas 1811) ; Myospalax zokor (Desmarest 1822) .

Distribution: Steppes and farmland of Russia on banks of Onon and Ingoda Rivers in the Upper Amur basin, N Mongolia ( Sokolov and Orlov, 1980), and NE China (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Hebei, and N Shanxi; see Zhang et al., 1997).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: M. myospalax species group. Listed, with a question mark, as a subspecies of M. myospalax by Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951), and unequivocally as M. m. aspalax by Ellerman (1941) and Corbet (1978 c). Separated as a species by Lawrence (1991) based on morphology, a status supported by karyotypic data ( M. myospalax , 2n = 44, FN = 80-84; M. aspalax , 2n = 62, FN =110-114; M. psilurus , 2n = 64, FN =106-108; Martynova, 1975; Nevo, 1999; Vorontsov and Martynova, 1976) and analysis of blood proteins ( Martynova et al., 1977). Closest phylogenetic relative is the early Pleistocene M. pseudarmandi , and both belong to the same species group containing the modern M. myospalax and Pliocene M. youngi ( Lawrence, 1991) .