Crocidura arispa Spitzenberger 1971
Creators: name: Mittermeier, Russell A.
name: Wilson, Don E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Soricomorpha
Soricidae
Crocidura
Crocidura arispa

description: 307. Jackass White-toothed Shrew <i>Crocidura arispa</i> <b>French:</b> Crocidure des Taurus / <b>German:</b> Taurus-WeiRRzahnspitzmaus / <b>Spanish:</b> Musarana de Jackass <b>Other common names:</b> Jackass Shrew <b>Taxonomy.</b> Crocidura pergrisea arispa Spitzenberger, 1971, Nigde, 20 km ESE of Ulukisla, southern Turkey. Based on morphology, C. arispa belongs to the C. pergrisea group. Hitherto known from only two individuals found in southwestern Turkey. However, herein five more individuals from Nakhichivan, in Azerbaijan, are also assigned to the species; at the time when these specimens were collected in 1991 the form arispa was considered a subspecies of C. pergrisea, but when arispa was split as a separate species in 2001 these specimens were erroneously retained in C. pergrisea. In 1963, A. A. Gureev described C. armenica as another species in this group, from Garni in Armenia bordering Azerbaijan and Turkey; based on priority of nomenclature, the aforementioned five individuals would have been assigned to C. armenica, but on present evidence this taxon cannot be considered a valid species because the dentition is abnormal in the holotype and the skull is broken in the paratype. Monotypic. <b>Distribution.</b> SW Turkey and Azerbaijan (Nakhichivan); it may occur in Armenia. <b>Descriptive notes.</b> Head—body 57-75 mm,tail 43-54 mm; weight 9 g (one specimen). The Jackass White-toothed Shrew is medium-sized and lightly built. Tail is relatively long, exceeding 63% of the body length. Pelage is bicolor: back is brownish gray, with slight smoky tint in adults; sides and belly are light gray, with distinct pale-yellow tint in adults; the boundary between the back and underside colors is just visible. Tailis unicolor (off-white) or slightly bicolor in rare cases. Chromosomal complement is 2n = 22, FN = 34; eight pairs of metacentric and submetacentric autosomes; X-acrocentric chromosome. Y-chromosome is unknown (only female karyotypes were studied). <b>Habitat.</b> The Jackass White-toothed Shrew lives on rock slides or among groups of boulders at the upper timberline. <b>Food and Feeding.</b> No information. <b>Breeding.</b> No information. <b>Activity patterns.</b> Jackass White-toothed Shrews are terrestrial. <b>Movements, Home range and Social organization.</b> No information. <b>Status and Conservation.</b> Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. TheJackass White-toothed Shrew is extremely rare, although it might actually seem rarer than it really is, if it is difficult to detect with usual tools. It should be noted that the “Armenian Shrew” (C. armenica) is recognized as a separate species and classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. <b>Bibliography.</b> Graphodatsky et al. (1989), Gromov et al. (1963), Krystufek &amp; Vohralik (2001), Sheftel (2014), Zaitsev (1991), Zaitsev et al. (2014).
description: Published as part of <i>Russell A. Mittermeier &amp; Don E. Wilson, 2018, Soricidae, pp. 332-551 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 8 Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions</i> on pages 505-506, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6870843