Shansei vole
species of mammal
The Shansei vole (Craseomys shanseius) is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found only in north-central China where its habitat is forests.
Taxonomy
The Shansei vole was first described in 1908 as Myodes shanseius by the British zoologist Oldfield Thomas, the type locality being Chao Cheng Shan in Shanxi Province. It is often regarded as a subspecies of the grey red-backed vole (Craseomys rufocanus). However the molar teeth in adults do not have roots which sets it apart from that species and tends to associate it with Eothenomys species, though the fur length, texture and colour pattern are more like Craseomys and Clethrionomys than Eothenomys. The Shansei vole is allopatric to the royal vole (Craseomys regulus) of the Korean peninsula with which it forms a species complex.
Description
The Shansei vole is similar in appearance to the grey red-backed vole but the reddish-coloured back is rather less rufous and the grey sides are more of an ochre-grey. The underparts are greyish-buff and the tail is brown above and white below. The upper surfaces of the feet are brownish-white. The eyes are small and the ears are small and rounded.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shansei vole” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.