Sorex (Sorex) araneus Linnaeus 1758
Creators: name: Wilson, Don E.
name: Reeder, DeeAnn
Publisher: name: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Soricomorpha
Soricidae
Sorex
Sorex araneus

description: Sorex (Sorex) araneus Linnaeus 1758
Sorex (Sorex) araneus Linnaeus 1758, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., Vol. 1: 53.
Type Locality: " in Europe cryptis "; restricted to Uppsala, Sweden by Thomas (1911 a:143).
Vernacular Names: Common Shrew.
Synonyms: Sorex (Sorex) bergensis Miller 1909; Sorex (Sorex) bohemicus Stepanek 1944; Sorex (Sorex) bolkayi Martino 1930; Sorex (Sorex) carpathicus Barrett-Hamilton 1905; Sorex (Sorex) castaneus Jenys 1838; Sorex (Sorex) concinnus Wagler 1832; Sorex (Sorex) csikii Ehik 1928; Sorex (Sorex) daubentonii Cuvier 1829; Sorex (Sorex) eleonorae Wettstein 1927; Sorex (Sorex) grantii Barrett-Hamilton and Hinton 1913; Sorex (Sorex) hermanni Duvernoy 1834; Sorex (Sorex) huelleri Lehmann 1966; Sorex (Sorex) ignotus Fatio 1905; Sorex (Sorex) iochanseni Ognev 1933; Sorex (Sorex) labiosus Jenys 1839; Sorex (Sorex) macrotrichus de Sélys Longchamps 1839; Sorex (Sorex) marchicus Passarge 1984; Sorex (Sorex) melanodon Wagler 1832; Sorex (Sorex) mollis Fatio 1900; Sorex (Sorex) nigra Fatio 1869; Sorex (Sorex) novyensis Schaefer 1975; Sorex (Sorex) nuda Fatio 1869; Sorex (Sorex) pallidus Fitzinger 1868; Sorex (Sorex) personatus Millet 1828; Sorex (Sorex) petrovi Martino 1939; Sorex (Sorex) peucinius Thomas 1913; Sorex (Sorex) preussi (Matschie 1893); Sorex (Sorex) pulcher Zalesky 1937; Sorex (Sorex) pyrenaicus Miller 1909; Sorex (Sorex) pyrrhonota (Jentink 1910); Sorex (Sorex) quadricaudatus Kerr 1792; Sorex (Sorex) ryphaeus Yudin 1989; Sorex (Sorex) sultanae Simsek 1986; Sorex (Sorex) surinamensis Gmelin 1788; Sorex (Sorex) tetragonurus Hermann 1780; Sorex (Sorex) uralensis Ognev 1933; Sorex (Sorex) vulgaris Nilsson 1847; Sorex (Sorex) wettsteini Bauer 1960.
Distribution: C, E, and N Europe including the British Isls (with some isolated populations in France, Italy and Spain), east to Siberia.
Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).
Discussion: Subgenus Sorex, S. araneus group. S. araneus is the preferred Palearctic species for studies in ecology and evolution; see Hausser et al. (1990), Hausser (1991), and Wójcik et al. (2002) for reviews. Karyotype variable (2n = 20-33, FN = 40). The species is well known for its Robertsonian chromosome polymorphism (Meylan, 1964) and for the tendency to establish local karyotype races (Hausser et al., 1985; Searle, 1984; Searle and Wójcik, 1998, 2000; Volobouev, 2003; Zima and Král, 1984 b; Zima et al., 1994). In Switzerland two karyotype races occur that behave like parapatric species (Hausser et al., 1986); see under S. antinorii. Includes Blarina pyrrhonota Jentink, 1910, a name assigned to Cryptotis surinamensis by Cabrera (1958); however, Husson (1963) showed that the locality information was incorrect and that it was based on a Sorex araneus. The holotype skin (skull lost) of Myosorex preussi Matschie, 1893, formerly thought to represent an endemic species of Mt. Cameroon (Heim de Balsac, 1968 b), is a Sorex araneus and therefore included as a synonym. Sorex isodon marchicus, described from E Germany (Passarge, 1984), is included in araneus as no clear morphological characters distinguish it from the latter (Turni et al., 2001), and because its karyotype represents the Laska race of the common shrews (Brünner et al., 2002 c).
description: Published as part of Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Soricomorpha, pp. 220-311 in Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore :The Johns Hopkins University Press on page 283, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7316519