Lepus europaeus Pallas 1778
Creators: name: Hoffmann, Robert S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1993
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Lagomorpha
Leporidae
Lepus
Lepus europaeus

description: <i>Lepus europaeus</i> Pallas, 1778. Nova Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord., p. 30. TYPE LOCALITY: Not stated; restricted by Trouessart (1910), to Poland (see discussion in Ognev, 1940:140, which further restricts it to SW Poland). DISTRIBUTION: Open woodland, steppe and subdesert: from S Sweden and Finland to Britain, throughout Europe (not Iberian Penin, south of Cantabria and the Ebro R, or south of Siena in Italy), to W Siberian lowlands; south to N Israel, N Syria, N Iraq, the Tigris-Euphrates valley and W Iran. SE border of range (Iran) from S Caspian Sea south to Persian Gulf (54°E); see Angerman (1983:19). Introduced to Ireland, SE Canada-NE USA, S South America, Australia, New Zealand and several islands, including Barbados, Réunion, and the Falklands. STATUS: Most populations secure (Flux and Angermann, 1990). SYNONYMS: <i>alba</i> Bechstein, 1801; <i>aquilonius</i> Blasius, 1842; <i>argenteogrisea</i> König-Warthausen, 1875; <i>astaricus</i> Baloutch, 1978; <i>biarmicus</i> Heptner, 1948; <i>borealis</i> Kuznetsov, 1944; <i>campestris</i> Bogdanov, 1871; <i>campicola</i> Gervais, 1859; <i>caspicus</i> Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832; <i>caucasicus Ognev,</i> 1929; <i>cinereus</i> Fitzinger, 1867; <i>connori</i> Robinson, 1918; <i>coronatus</i> Fitzinger, 1867; <i>creticus</i> Barrett-Hamilton, 1903; <i>cyanotus</i> Blanchard, 1957; <i>cyprius</i> Barrett-Hamilton, 1903; <i>cyrensis</i> Satunin, 1905; <i>flavus</i> Bechstein, 1801; <i>ghigii</i> de Beaux, 1927; <i>hybridus</i> Desmarest, 1822; <i>hyemalis</i> Tumac, 1850; <i>judeae</i> Gray, 1867; <i>kalmykorum</i> Ognev, 1929; <i>karpathorum</i> Hilzheimer, 1906; <i>laskerewi (?)</i> Khomenko, 1916; <i>maculatus</i> Fitzinger, 1867; <i>médius</i> Nilsson, 1820; <i>meridiei</i> Hilzheimer, 1906; <i>meridionalis</i> Gervais, 1859; <i>niethammeri</i> Wettstein, 1943; <i>niger</i> Bechstein, 1801; <i>nigricans</i> Fitzinger, 1867; <i>occidentalis</i> de Winton, 1898; <i>parnassius</i> Miller, 1903; <i>ponticus</i> <i>Ognev,</i> 1929; <i>pyrenaicus</i> Hilzheimer, 1906; <i>rhodius</i> Festa, 1914; <i>rufus,</i> Fitzinger, 1867; <i>syriacus</i> Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832; <i>tesquorum</i> Ognev and Worobiev, 1923; <i>transsylvanicus</i> Matschie, 1901; <i>transsylvaticus</i> Hilzheimer, 1906; <i>tumac</i> Tichomirov and Kortchagin, 1889. COMMENTS: Subgenus <i>Eulagos</i> (Gureev, 1964:205; Gromov and Baranova, 1981). This species was earlier placed in <i>capensis</i> by Petter (1961) based on what was interpreted as a cline in morphological characters (mainly size) from NE Africa eastward across the N Arabian peninsula and the Middle East, and northward through Israel to Turkey. Sympatry between large <i>" europaeus "</i> and small <i>" capensis " (= tolai)</i> in Kazakhstan, without evidence of hybridization (Sludskii et al., 1980) was interpreted as overlapping ends of a Rassenkreis. Angermann's (1983) reanalysis indicated a marked discontinuity between smaller <i>capensis</i> (incl. <i>arabicus)</i> and larger <i>europaeus</i> running from the E Mediterranean coast (C Israel) through Iran, and on this basis we separate <i>europaeus</i> from <i>capensis</i> and <i>tolai.</i> East of the border of the range of <i>europaeus</i> in Iran, <i>tolai</i> occurs, apparently in allo- or parapatry with <i>europaeus.</i> Insular populations in the E Mediterranean are assigned to this species (Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951).
description: Published as part of <i>Robert S. Hoffmann, 1993, Order Lagomorpha, pp. 807-827 in Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London :Smithsonian Institution Press</i> on page 817, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353088
description: {"references": ["Trouessart, E. L. 1910. Faune des Mammiferes d'Europe. R. Friedlander, Berlin, 219 pp.", "Ognev, S. I. 1940. Zveri SSSR i prilezhashchikh stran: Gryzuny. (Zveri vostochnoi Evropy i severnoi Azii) [Mammals of the USSR and adjacent countries: Rodents (Mammals of eastern Europe and northern Asia)]. Akademiya Nauk SSSR, 4: 1 - 615 (in Russian).", "Flux, J. E. C., and R. Angermann. 1990. The hares and jackrabbits. Pp. 61 - 94, in Rabbits, hares and pikas (J. A. Chapman and J. E. C. Flux, eds.). I. U. C. N., Gland, Switzerland, 168 pp.", "Baloutch, M. 1978. Etude d'une collection de lievres d'Iran et description de quatre formes nouvelles. Mammalia, 42: 441 - 452.", "Kuznetsov, B. A. 1944. Ordo Rodentia. Pp. 262 - 362, in Opredelitel' mlekopitayushchikh SSSR [Guide to the mammals of the USSR] (Bobrinskii, N. A., Kuznetsov, B. A. and A. P. Kuzyakin, eds.). Sovetskaya Nauka, Moscow, 439 pp. (in Russian).", "Gureev, A. A. 1964. Fauna SSSR, Mlekopitayushchie, tom. 3, vyp. 10, Zaitseobraznye (Lagomorpha) [Fauna of the USSR, mammals, vol. 3, pt. 10, Lagomorpha]. Nauka, Moscow-Leningrad, 276 pp. (in Russian).", "Gromov, I. M., and G. I. Baranova (eds.). 1981. Katalog mlekopitayushchikh SSSR [Catalog of mammals of the USSR]. Nauka, Leningrad, 456 pp. (in Russian).", "Sludskii, A. A., A. D. Bernstein, I. G. Shubin, V. A. Fadeev, G. I. Orlov, A. Bekenov, V. I. Kharitonov, and S. R. Utinov. 1980. Mlekopitayushchie Kazakhstana, tom 2, Zaitseobraznye [Mammals of Kazakhstan. vol. 2, Lagomorpha]. Nauka, Kazakhskoi SSR, Alma-Ata, 236 pp. (in Russian).", "Angermann, R. 1983. The taxonomy of Old World Lepus. Acta Zoologica Fennica, 174: 17 - 21.", "Ellerman, J. R., and T. C. S. Morrison-Scott. 1951. Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London, 810 pp."]}