Dicrostonyx Gloger 1841
Creators: name: Musser, Guy G.
name: Carleton, Michael D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1993
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Muridae
Dicrostonyx

description: <i>Dicrostonyx</i> Gloger, 1841. Gemein Hand.- Hilfsbuch. Nat., 1:97. TYPE SPECIES: <i>Mus hudsonius</i> Pallas, 1778. SYNONYMS: <i>Borioikon, Cuniculus, Misothermus, Tylonyx.</i> COMMENTS: At first <i>Dicrostonyx</i> was grouped with other lemmings following Miller's (1896) classic Lemmi-Microti division (e.g., Ellerman, 1941; Hinton, 1926; Ognev, 19636; Simpson, 1945). An impressive variety of data, however, requires its tribal separation (Dicrostonychini) from the true lemmings (Lemmini) and suggests that the origin of <i>Dicrostonyx</i> dates to the earliest radiation of arvicolines (Carleton, 1981; Chaline and Graf, 1988; Gromov and Polyakov, 1977; Hinton, 1926; Hooper and Hart, 1962; Kretzoi, 1969; Modi, 1987). The simple viewpoint of a single circumpolar species, <i>D. torquatus,</i> as advanced by Ognev (1963b) and Rausch (1953, 19636), has been unsettled by karyotypic reports of the past two decades (Chernyavskii and Kozlovskii, 1980; Kröhne, 1982; Rausch, 1977; Rausch and Rausch, 1972). The occurrence of varying lemmings in quite different tundra biotopes (e.g., see Youngman, 1975) alone might have questioned the existence of only one species, but the karyological and breeding results of Rausch and Rausch (1972) first drew attention to the possibility of a superspecies complex among North American <i>Dicrostonyx,</i> an interpretation reiterated by Rausch (1977; see summary of chromosomal variation in Kröhne, 1982). Later authorities either listed the North American karyotypic morphs as species (Corbet and Hill, 1991; Honacki et al., 1982; Jones et al., 1986) or continued to recognize most as subspecies of <i>D. groenlandicus,</i> together with <i>D. exsul</i> on St. Lawrence Island and D. <i>hudsonius</i> on the Ungava Peninsula (Hall, 1981). After examining museum specimens, we readily appreciate the specific distinctiveness of <i>groenlandicus, hudsonius, richardsoni,</i> and <i>unalascensis.</i> The morphological discrimination of others <i>(kilangmiutak, nelsoni,</i> and <i>rubricatus)</i> is more subtle but may yield to careful description and analysis; we have not seen examples of <i>nunatakensis,</i> an isolated taxon described as a subspecies of <i>torquatus</i> by Youngman (1967). Unfortunately, the provocative findings of Rausch and others have not been explored and substantiated using other taxonomic information; in this regard, Youngman's (1975) narrative overview of species and racial distributions warrants attention in future efforts. We herein continue to list the species of <i>Dicrostonyx</i> as provisional and stress that their repetition in checklists like this enhances neither our confidence in the number of biological entities nor our understanding of their biogeographic significance.
description: Published as part of <i>Guy G. Musser &amp; Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 501-755 in Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London :Smithsonian Institution Press</i> on pages 509-510, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098
description: {"references": ["Miller, G. S., Jr. 1896. The genera and subgenera of voles and lemmings. North American Fauna, 12: 1 - 84.", "Ellerman, J. R. 1941. The families and genera of living rodents. Vol. II. Family Muridae. British Museum (Natural History), London, 690 pp.", "Simpson, G. G. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 85: 1 - 350.", "Carleton, M. D. 1981. A survey of gross stomach morphology in Microtinae (Rodentia, Muroidea). Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 46: 93 - 108.", "Chaline, J., and J. - D. Graf. 1988. Phylogeny of the Arvicolidae (Rodentia): Biochemical and paleontological evidence. Journal of Mammalogy, 69: 22 - 33.", "Gromov, I. M., and I. Ya. Polyakov. 1977. Fauna SSSR, Mlekopitayushchie, tom 3, vyp. 8 [Fauna of the USSR, vol. 3, pt. 8, Mammals]. Polevki [Voles (Microtinae)]. Nauka, Moscow-Leningrad, 504 pp. (in Russian).", "Hooper, E. T., and B. S. Hart. 1962. A synopsis of Recent North American microtine rodents. Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 120: 1 - 68.", "Kretzoi, M. 1969. Skizze einer Arvicoliden-Phylogenie. Vertebrata Hungarica (Budapest), 11: 155 - 193.", "Modi, W. S. 1987. Phylogenetic analyses of chromosomal banding patterns among the Nearctic Arvicolidae (Mammalia: Rodentia). Systematic Zoology, 36: 109 - 136.", "Ognev, S. I. 1963 b. Mammals of the USSR and adjacent countries: Rodents (continued). (Mammals of eastern Europe and northern Asia) [A translation of S. I. Ognev, 1948, Zveri SSSR i prilezhashchikh stran: Gryzuny (prodolzhenie). (Zveri vostochnoi Evropy i severnoi Azii)]. Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, 6: 1 - 508.", "Rausch, R. L. 1953. On the status of some Arctic mammals. Arctic (Journal of the Arctic Institute of North America), 6: 91 - 148.", "Chernyavskii, F. B., and A. I. Kozlovskii. 1980. [Species status and history of Arctic lemmings (Dicrostonyx, Rodentia) on Wrangel Island]. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 59: 266 - 273 (in Russian).", "Krohne, D. T. 1982. The karyotype of Dicrostonyx hudsonius. Journal of Mammalogy, 63: 174 - 176.", "Rausch, R. L. 1977. On the zoogeography of some Beringian mammals. Pp. 162 - 177, in Uspekhi sovremennoi teriologii [Advances in modern theriology] (V. E. Sokolov, ed.). Nauka, Moscow, 296 pp. (in Russian).", "Rausch, R. L., and V. R. Rausch. 1972. Observations on chromosomes of Dicrostonyx torquatus stevensoni Nelson and chromosomal diversity in varying lemmings. Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, 37: 372 - 384.", "Youngman, P. M. 1975. Mammals of the Yukon Territory. National Museum of Natural Sciences (Ottawa), Publications in Zoology, 10: 1 - 192.", "Corbet, G. B., and J. E. Hill. 1991. A world list of mammalian species. Third ed. British Museum (Natural History) Publications, London, 243 pp.", "Honacki, J. H., K. E. Kinman and J. W. Koeppl (eds.). 1982. Mammal species of the world, a taxonomic and geographic reference. Allen Press, Inc. and The Association of Systematics Collections, Lawrence, Kansas, 694 pp.", "Jones, J. K., Jr., D. C. Carter, H. H. Genoways, R. S. Hoffman, D. W. Rice, and C. Jones. 1986. Revised checklist of North American mammals north of Mexico. Occasional Papers, The Museum, Texas Tech University, 107: 1 - 22.", "Hall, E. R. 1981. The mammals of North America. Second ed. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1: 1 - 600 + 90, 2: 601 - 1181 + 90.", "Youngman, P. M. 1967. A new subspecies of varying lemmings Dicrostonyx torquatus (Pallas), from Yukon Territory (Mammalia, Rodentia). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 80: 31 - 34."]}