Ochotona hyperborea subsp. yesoensis Kishida 1930

Ochotona hyperborea yesoensis Kishida, 1930

Ochotona yoshikurai Kishida, 1932

Holotype.— Botanic Garden and Museum, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University HUNHM06803, adult male. Collected by Forestry Bureau of the Hokkaido Government Office in 11 October 1928.

Type locality.— “In Prov. Kitami, a northern part of that Island ” (Kishida 1930). Notsukeushi, Kitami according to the specimen label.

Description.— Pikas of the F genetic lineage; eastern acoustic race. Separation from the only spatial neighbor of this subspecies: O. h. fedoseevi ssp. n., is possible on the basis of genetic traits only.

Distribution.— Sikhote-Alin Range, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido Islands. The range of this subspecies is isolated from those of other subspecies of northern pikas.

Nomenclatural notes.— No available names were described from the mainland part of this subspecies’ distribution. Sakhalin pikas were described as Ochotona yoshikurai Kishida, 1932. The nominal taxon Ochotona yesoensis Kishida, 1930, was described from Hokkaido Island; that region was not included in this study (except for bioacoustics). Nevertheless, Kartavtseva et al. (2014) analyzed the Cytochrome b gene of pikas from south of Russian Far East (genetic lineage F in our study) and Hokkaido Island and concluded that pikas from Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Sikhote-Alin represent the same phylogenetic clade. From the position of bioacoustics, it is known that pikas from Hokkaido belong to the eastern acoustic race (Kawamichi 1981; Lissovsky 2005; this study). Thus, there is no information about any taxonomic peculiarities with respect to the Japanese pika, and we consider it to belong to the same subspecies as pikas from mainland Sikhote-Alin Range and Sakhalin Island. The name Ochotona yesoensis Kishida, 1930 is the senior synonym for the pikas from the distribution range of this subspecies.