Microtus Schrank 1798
Creators: name: Wilson, Don E.
name: Reeder, DeeAnn
Publisher: name: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Cricetidae
Microtus

description: Microtus Schrank 1798
Microtus Schrank 1798, Fauna Boica, Vol. 1, 1: 72.
Type Species: Microtus terrestris Schrank 1798
Synonyms: Agricola Blasius 1857; Ammomys Bonaparte 1831; Arbusticola Shidlovsky 1919; Arvalomys Chaline 1974; Aulacomys Rhoads 1894; Bicunedens Hodgson 1863; Campicola Schulze 1890; Campicoloma Strand 1928; Chilotus Baird 1857; Euarvicola Acloque 1899; Herpetomys Merriam 1898; Iberomys Chaline 1972; Isodelta Cope 1871; Meridiopitymys Chaline 1974; Micrurus Major 1877; Oecomicrotus Rabeder 1981; Orthriomys Merriam 1898; Pallasiinus Kretzoi 1964; Parapitymys Chaline 1978; Pinemys Lesson 1836; Steneocranius Trouessart 1904; Sumeriomys Argyropulo 1933; Suranomys Chaline 1972; Sylvicola Fatio 1867; Tetramerodon Rhoads 1894; Tibercola Koenigswald, Fejfar, and Tchernov 1992; Tyrrhenicola Major 1905.
Species and subspecies: 62 species in 7 subgenera:
Subgenus Microtus (Microtus) Schrank 1798
Subgenus Microtus (Terricola) Fatio 1867
Subgenus Microtus (Mynomes) Rafinesque 1817
Subgenus Microtus (Alexandromys) Ognev 1914
Subgenus Microtus (Stenocranius) Kastschenko 1901
Subgenus Microtus (Pitymys) McMurtrie 1831
Subgenus Microtus (Pedomys) Baird 1857
Species Microtus abbreviatus Miller 1899
Species Microtus (Microtus) agrestis (Linnaeus 1761)
Species Microtus (Microtus) anatolicus Kryštufek and Kefelioğlu 2002
Species Microtus (Microtus) arvalis (Pallas 1778)
Species Microtus (Terricola) bavaricus Konig 1962
Species Microtus (Terricola) brachycercus Lehmann 1961
Species Microtus (Mynomes) breweri Baird 1857
Species Microtus (Microtus) cabrerae Thomas 1906
Species Microtus californicus Peale 1848
Species Microtus (Mynomes) canicaudus Miller 1897
Species Microtus chrotorrhinus Miller 1894
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) clarkei Hinton 1923
Species Microtus (Terricola) daghestanicus Shidlovsky 1919
Species Microtus (Microtus) dogramacii Kefelioğlu and Kryštufek 1999
Species Microtus (Terricola) duodecimcostatus de Selys-Longchamps 1839
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) evoronensis Kovalskaya and Sokolov 1980
Species Microtus (Terricola) felteni Malec and Storch 1963
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) fortis Büchner 1889
Species Microtus (Terricola) gerbei Gerbe 1879
Species Microtus (Stenocranius) gregalis (Pallas 1779)
Species Microtus guatemalensis Merriam 1898
Species Microtus (Microtus) guentheri Danford and Alston 1880
Species Microtus (Microtus) ilaeus Thomas 1912
Species Microtus (Microtus) irani Thomas 1921
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) kikuchii Kuroda 1920
Species Microtus (Microtus) levis Miller 1908
Species Microtus (Terricola) liechtensteini Wettstein 1927
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) limnophilus Büchner 1889
Species Microtus longicaudus Merriam 1888
Species Microtus (Terricola) lusitanicus Gerbe 1879
Species Microtus (Terricola) majori Thomas 1906
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) maximowiczii Schrenk 1859
Species Microtus mexicanus Saussure 1861
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) middendorffii Poljakov 1881
Species Microtus miurus Osgood 1901
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) mongolicus Radde 1861
Species Microtus (Mynomes) montanus Peale 1848
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) montebelli Milne-Edwards 1872
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) mujanensis Orlov and Kovalskaya 1978
Species Microtus (Terricola) multiplex Fatio 1905
Species Microtus (Pitymys) oaxacensis Goodwin 1966
Species Microtus (Pedomys) ochrogaster Wagner 1842
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) oeconomus (Pallas 1776)
Species Microtus (Mynomes) oregoni Bachman 1839
Species Microtus (Microtus) paradoxus Ognev and Heptner 1928
Species Microtus (Mynomes) pennsylvanicus Ord 1815
Species Microtus (Pitymys) pinetorum Le Conte 1830
Species Microtus (Microtus) qazvinensis Golenishchev 2003
Species Microtus (Pitymys) quasiater Coues 1874
Species Microtus richardsoni DeKay 1842
Species Microtus (Alexandromys) sachalinensis Vasin 1955
Species Microtus (Terricola) savii de Selys-Longchamps 1838
Species Microtus (Terricola) schelkovnikovi Satunin 1907
Species Microtus (Microtus) schidlovskii Argyropulo 1933
Species Microtus (Microtus) socialis (Pallas 1773)
Species Microtus (Terricola) subterraneus de Selys-Longchamps 1836
Species Microtus (Microtus) tatricus Kratochvíl 1952
Species Microtus (Terricola) thomasi Barrett-Hamilton 1903
Species Microtus (Mynomes) townsendii Bachman 1839
Species Microtus (Microtus) transcaspicus Satunin 1905
Species Microtus umbrosus Merriam 1898
Species Microtus xanthognathus Leach 1815
Discussion: Arvicolini. Nowhere are the explosiveness and recency of arvicoline evolution more dramatically highlighted than by the inconsistency of systematic treatment of genus-group taxa to be subsumed by Microtus. Little consensus exists concerning the morphological limits or monophyly of many of these taxa, a situation that partly reflects the overly narrow reliance of our classifications on dental characters undergoing rapid change (see Guthrie, 1971; Koenigswald, 1980). The recency of speciation is another contributory factor— Conroy and Cook (2000 a) dated the major pulse of diversification within Microtus as only 1.3 million years ago. See accounts of Blanfordimys, Chionomys, Lasiopodomys, Neodon, Phaiomys, and Proedromys, often included in Microtus but which are here treated as genera.
North American forms revised by Bailey (1900) and taxonomy updated by Hall and Cockrum (1953) and Hall (1981); many aspects of anatomy, paleontology, taxonomy, and zoogeography covered in Tamarin (1985). See R. A. Martin (1995) for comments on the usage of Pedomys and Pitymys as subgenera of Microtus and classification of fossil forms. The more diverse Palearctic fauna is covered in several comprehensive synopses (Corbet, 1978 c; Gromov and Erbajeva, 1995; Gromov and Polyakov, 1977; Meyer et al., 1996; Mitchell-Jones et al., 1999; Niethammer and Krapp, 1982 a; Ognev, 1963 b, 1964; Pavlinov et al., 1995 a). See Pozdnyakov (1996) for summary of morphological and chromosomal variation within the subgenus Alexandromys and arrangement of species groups. Fossil Microtus are known from the late Pliocene of Eurasia and North America (Chaline et al., 1999; McKenna and Bell, 1997; Repenning, 1992; Van der Muelen, 1978). The genus is generally thought to have been derived from the Pliocene Allophaiomys, either directly for some North American and European species (Chaline et al., 1999; Repenning, 1992) or indirectly through a morphological intermediate similar to Lasiopodomys (Repenning, 1992); Kotlia (1994), on the other hand, suggested direct descent from the Pliocene Mimomys in S Asia.
The Holarctic distribution of Microtus (see map in Gromov and Erbajeva, 1995) has spawned two principal scenarios of zoogeographic interpretation. The traditional notion has emphasized multiple intercontinental dispersals and broad transcontinental distributions of subgenera, a viewpoint more often propounded by paleontologists (R. A. Martin, 1974, 1987; Repenning, 1980, 1983, 1992, 1998; Repenning et al., 1990; Van der Muelen, 1978). An alternative hypothesis stresses one or two intercontinental dispersions and extensive regional cladogenesis; such a viewpoint has gained more credence, emerging from studies of allozymes (Chaline and Graf, 1988; Graf, 1982; Moore and Janecek, 1990), chromosomes (Zagorodnyuk, 1990), mitochondrial DNA (Conroy and Cook, 1999, 2000 a; Conroy et al., 2001), and fossils (Brunet-Lecomte and Chaline, 1991, 1992; Chaline, 1974; Chaline et al., 1999; Kryštufek et al., 1996; R. A. Martin, 1995). According to these collective results, pitymyine forms in the Old World (Terricola) differentiated independently of those in the New World (Pedomys, Pitymys); New World common voles (Mynomes) are cladistically separated from Old World subgenera such as Microtus proper, Alexandromys, and Agricola; and the invasion of the New World semiaquatic niche is recognized (subgenus Aulacomys) as independent of the Old World water‑vole radiation (genus Arvicola). See especially Conroy and Cook (2000 a) for review of these hypotheses and comments on taxonomy and biogeography.
description: Published as part of Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, pp. 955-1189 in Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore :The Johns Hopkins University Press on page 989, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7316535