Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae
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
955
1189
book chapter
0-8018-8221-4
10.5281/zenodo.7316535
Microtus miurus
Osgood 1901
Microtus miurus
Osgood 1901
,
N. Amer. Fauna, 21: 64
.
Type Locality:
USA
,
Alaska
, Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm, head of Bear Creek in mountains near Hope City.
Vernacular Names:
Singing Vole
.
Synonyms:
Microtus andersoni
Rand 1945
;
Microtus cantator
Anderson 1947
;
Microtus muriei
Nelson 1931
;
Microtus oreas
Osgood 1907
;
Microtus paneaki
Rausch 1950
.
Distribution:
Alaska
,
USA
, except the central portion and
Alaska
Peninsula; eastwards through much of
Yukon Territory
to westernmost
Northwest Territories
and extreme NW
British Columbia
,
Canada
.
Conservation:
IUCN
– Lower Risk (lc).
Discussion:
Subgenus indeterminate. Classically treated as a member of the subgenus
Stenocranius
(e.g.,
Hall, 1981
;
Miller and Kellogg, 1955
), an association that purported close affinity to Old World
M. gregalis
(see that account); synonymized with same to form a Holarctic species by
Rausch (1964)
and
Rausch and Rausch (1968)
. Other data convincingly argue their specific distinctiveness and distant kinship (
Anderson, 1960
;
Fedyk, 1970
;
Gromov and Polyakov, 1977
;
Vorontsov and Lyapunova, 1986
), and phylogenetic studies of chromosomes (
Zagorodnyuk, 1990
) and mitochondrial DNA sequences (
Conroy and Cook, 2000
a
) require the removal of
M. miurus
(along with
M. abbreviatus
) from
Stenocranius
proper.
Zagorodnyuk (1990)
had emphasized this divergence by placing
M. miurus
in the subgenus
Alexandromys
,
M. middendorfii
species group, along with
M. mongolicus
and
M. sachalinensis
. According to the results of
Conroy and Cook (2000
a
)
,
M. miurus
, and its sister species
M. abbreviatus
, originated early within the radiation of North American
Microtus
, apart from Palearctic species.