Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
Author
Wilson, Don E.
Author
Reeder, DeeAnn
text
2005
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2
1189
1531
book chapter
0-8018-8221-4
10.5281/zenodo.7316535
Niviventer culturatus
(Thomas 1917)
[Niviventer] culturatus
(Thomas 1917)
,
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 20: 198
.
Type Locality:
Taiwan
, Mt Arizan,
8000 ft
(
2440 m
).
Vernacular Names:
Soft-furred
Taiwan
Niviventer
.
Distribution:
Endemic to highlands of
Taiwan
,
2000-3000 m
(H.-
T
. Yu, 1994; M.-J. Yu, 1996).
Conservation:
IUCN
– Lower Risk (nt).
Discussion:
Historically listed as a species (
Ellerman, 1941
), a subspecies of
N. niviventer
(
Ellerman, 1961
;
Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951
;
Wang and Zheng, 1981
), or included in
N. confucianus
(
Musser, 1981
b
;
Corbet and Hill, 1992
).
Niviventer culturatus
is a distinctive insular form that in morphology superficially resembles mainland
N. confucianus
, but differs sufficiently that it should be treated as a species, as revealed by multivariate analysis of morphometric traits by Musser and Lunde (ms), which also clusters
N. culturatus
with the Javan
N. lepturus
, Chinese
N. andersoni
and
N. excelsior
, and Burmese
N. brahma
, but not with
N. confucianus
. Analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome
b
sequences also highlights the specific integrity of
N. culturatus
but places it with
N. confucianus
,
N. coninga
, and
N. tenaster
in a monophyletic clade (J. L. Patton, in litt., 2000;
N. langbianis
and
N. fulvescens
were the only other
Niviventer
sampled). Chromosomal data documented by H.-
T
. Yu et al. (1996) and compared with karyotype of
N. coninga
(see account of that species). Ecology, distribution and abundance along an elevational gradient, and genetic population structure documented by H.-
T
. Yu (1993, 1994, 1995); microhabitat use reported by
Adler (1996)
.