Soriculus minor Dobson 1890
Creators
- 1. Collaborative Innovation Center of Recovery and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystem in Wanjiang Basin Co-founded by Anhui Province and Ministry of Education, School of Ecology and Environment, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241002, China & State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution & Yunnan Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Conservation of Gaoligong Mountain, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650204, China
- 2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Recovery and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystem in Wanjiang Basin Co-founded by Anhui Province and Ministry of Education, School of Ecology and Environment, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241002, China
- 3. Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan 671000, China
- 4. Central Department of Zoology, Institute of Science and Technology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 44618, Nepal
- 5. State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution & Yunnan Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Conservation of Gaoligong Mountain, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650204, China
Description
Soriculus minor Dobson, 1890 (Fig.6; Table 1)
Soriculus minor Dobson, 1890: pl.xxiv. Type locality: Manipur, Assam.
Soriculus radulus Tomas, 1922: 429. Type locality: Misimi Hills, Assam.
Suggested common name: Lesser large-clawed shrew; ẇkmŧ Dzẽē.
Type locality: Manipur, Assam.
Remarks: This is the smallest species in the genus Soriculus (W = 8.9 ± 1.2 g, HB = 74 ± 1 mm; Table 1). The dorsal pelage is dark brown to black, and ventral pelage slightly paler. Tail is short (TL = 37 ± 4 mm, range 31–43 mm; Table 1), averaging 52% of head and body length. The tail is not sharply bicoloured, dark brown above and paler below. Foreclaws are markedly enlarged. The species externally somewhat similar in appearance to the sympatric species Blarinella wardi Thomas, 1915, but the latter has five upper unicuspids, and all teeth are heavily pigmented dark chestnut or black.
The skull is distinctly smaller than in other Soriculus species, and the posterior of the skull is angular rather than rounded. The apex of the first upper incisor is placed straight downwards. There are four upper unicuspids that are crowded together. Four upper unicuspids (U 1 –U 4) are present; U 1 is largest in size, U 2 is slightly larger than U 3 and U 4 is minute. Pigmentation of the teeth is very light, only present on the tips of the teeth, and much lighter than those of other Soriculus species.
Comments: Soriculus minor was first described by Dobson (1890), but it was not subsequently used as a valid name. Motokawa (2003) demonstrated that S. minor should be used as the senior synonym of S. radulus. It was then treated as a subspecies of S. nigrescens, although many authors have pointed out that it is distinctly smaller (Hoffmann 1985, Jenkins 2013). Jiang et al. (2023) found the sequences of S. n. minor (clade YN) do not form a monophyletic group with S. nigrescens, proposing instead that S. minor may represent a new genus. Our results indicated S. minor is a distinct species of Soriculus.
Distribution: Soriculus minor is distributed in Bhutan, northeastern India, northern Myanmar, and south-western China (southern Tibet and north-western Yunnan, west of Salween River) (Jenkins 2013, Burgin and He 2018). The known elevational range is 1400 m to 2630 m a.s.l.
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Family
- Soricidae
- Genus
- Soriculus
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Order
- Soricomorpha
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Scientific name authorship
- Dobson
- Species
- minor
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Soriculus minor Dobson, 1890 sec. Chen, Pei, Hu, Song, Khanal, Li & Jiang, 2024
References
- Dobson GE. A Monograph of the Insectivora, Systematic and Anatomical. Part III. London: Gurney and Jackson, 1890.
- Thomas O. A new shrew of the genus Blarinella from Upper Burma. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 1915; 15: 335 - 6.
- Motokawa M. Soriculus minor Dobson, 1890, senior synonym of S. radulus Thomas, 1922 (Insectivora, Soricidae). Mammalian Biology 2003; 68: 178 - 80.
- Hoffmann RS. A review of the genus Soriculus (Mammalia: Insectivora). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 1985; 82: 459 - 81.
- Jenkins PD. An account of the Himalayan mountain soricid community, with the description of a new species of Crocidura (Mammalia: Soricomorpha: Soricidae). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement 2013; 29: 161 - 75.
- Jiang HJ, Fu CK, Tang KY et al. Molecular phylogenetics and diversity of the Himalayan shrew (Soriculus nigrescens Gray, 1842) (Eulipotyphla, Soricidae) in southwest China. Zootaxa 2023; 5263: 061 - 78.
- Burgin CJ, He K. Family Soricidae (shrew) In: Wilson DE, Russell AM (eds), Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, 2018, 474 - 530.