151.

Villa’s Gray Shrew

Notiosorex villai

French: Musaraigne de Villa / German: Villa-Wiistenspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana gris de Villa

Other common names: Villa's Shrew

Taxonomy. Notiosorex villai Carraway & Timm, 2000,

“ Jaumave, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 2400 ft. [= 732 m].”

Notiosorex villai was previously included in N. crawfordi but was described as a distinct species based primarily on morphometrics. Distributional limits of all species of Notiosorex are still somewhat unknown; additional sampling is needed. Monotypic.

Distribution. Known only from three localities in SW Tamaulipas (NE Mexico); it

potentially occurs in a wider distribution, but additional studies are needed.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 59-62 mm, tail 28-31 mm, ear 7-9 mm, hindfoot 11-11-5 mm; weight 5-6-3 g. Villa’s Gray Shrew is small and externally very similar to other species of Notiosorex. Dorsum is light grayish brown, and venteris white or pale gray. Feet are broad, with relatively short claws. Tail is ¢.33% of head-body length, unicolored dark grayish brown, and covered with very short hairs. Ears are long and conspicuous, being the same color as dorsal pelage externally and pinkish internally; eyes are small but large compared with other shrews; and snout is pink with dark line on ridge extending to tip of rostrum. Females have three inguinal mammae. There is no prominent ridge on lateral side of cranium as in other species of Notiosorex; paroccipital processes lie against exoccipitals; coronoid processes are slender relative to their height (as in the Desert Gray Shrew, N. crawfordi); and zygomatic plate is narrower than in the Large-eared Gray Shrew (NN. evotis) and the Desert Gray Shrew. There are three unicuspids, and teeth are entirely white with no pigmentation, as in all species of Notiosorex.

Habitat. Pine-oak forests, tropical forests, and riparian forests at elevations of 580-1340 m.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. Two lactating Villa’s Gray Shrews were captured in July 1953.

Activity patterns. No information.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. Villa's Gray Shrew is known from only three localities in two isolated mountain valleys and from relatively few specimens. It is most threatened by overgrazing and agricultural expansion; it might be found in El Cielo Biosphere Reserve in Tamaulipas, but this is uncertain.

Bibliography. Alvarez (1963), Baker et al. (2003), Carraway (2007, 2014f), Carraway & Timm (2000), Castro-Arellano, Timm et al. (2008).