Crocidura normalis Esselstyn & Achmadi & Handika & Swanson & Giarla & Rowe 2021, new species
Creators: name: Esselstyn, Jacob A.
name: Achmadi, Anang S.
name: Handika, Heru
name: Swanson, Mark T.
name: Giarla, Thomas C.
name: Rowe, Kevin C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Soricomorpha
Soricidae
Crocidura
Crocidura normalis

description: Crocidura normalis, new species   LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank. org:act: A639DEFB-7B56-4B2F-9916- 333E95A8B499  
HOLOTYPE: MZB 43010 (= FMNH 213437), an adult male, collected by J.A. Esselstyn on 27 March 2011. The specimen was prepared as a study skin, cleaned skull (fig. 41 A) and skeleton, and frozen tissues. External measurements from the holotype are: 124 mm × 55 mm × 13 mm × 8 mm = 4.9 g. The voucher specimen and a tissue sample will be permanently curated at MZB, with an additional tissue sample retained at FMNH. TYPE LOCALITY: Indonesia, Sulawesi Tengah, Poso, Huasa, Sedoa, Lore Lindu National Park, Mt. Rorekatimbo; 1.2884° S, 120.3104° E, 2250 m.  
 ETYMOLOGY: Normalis is Latin for “normal,” used in recognition that this is yet another species of shrew with no striking phenotypic traits worthy of attaching a descriptive name.   
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: We recorded this species at relatively high-elevation sites in Sulawesi’s west-central (Mt. Gandang Dewata, West Sulawesi Province; Mts. Latimojong and Rorekatimbo, Central Sulawesi Province), eastcentral (Mt. Katopasa, Central Sulawesi Province) and south-east areas of endemism (Mt. Mekongga, Southeast Sulawesi Province; figs. 13, 39). We found this species at sites ranging from 1400 to 2600 m (fig. 13, table 3).  
 DIAGNOSIS: Crocidura normalis is a mediumsized shrew (tables 2, 14), with a light build (fig. 17) and dark brown pelage, feet, lips, pinna, and tail. Dorsoventrally, the color is relatively uniform. The mystacial vibrissae are short relative to body length and darkly pigmented proximally for about half of their length. The tail can be as long as head-and-body length but is usually shorter (fig. 9). It is relatively densely covered with bristles, many of which are darkly pigmented from the base of the tail along approxi- mately two-thirds of its length (fig. 40A). The small, applied hairs that typically cover the tail of Crocidura are less distinctly noticeable than in many other species. The feet are brown to black, usually uniformly so, including the digits and the thenar and hypothenar are subequal in area (fig. 40A). The claws are translucent. The skull is relatively gracile, being narrow across its entire length for a Crocidura of this size (fig. 10; table 14). Rostral length makes up a comparatively small proportion of skull length (fig. 10). The maxillary process is not prominent, the palate is narrow, and the occlusal surface area of the dentition is small relative to skull size (fig. 41A). The maxillary bridge is narrow.   
 COMPARISONS: Crocidura normalis is smaller than all members of the Long-Tailed, Thick- Tailed, and Rhoditis groups, and larger than all members of the Small-Bodied Group. As the smallest member of the Ordinary Group, C. normalis is only slightly larger than C. mediocris (the   TABLE 15.   Results of Principal Components Analysis of Craniodental Measurements of Crocidura nigripes   
 a Table entries for variables are component loadings.   
 largest member of the Small-Bodied Group). It differs from C. mediocris in having a darker, denser pelage (individual hairs approximately 5 mm at middorsum) and longer tail both absolutely and relative to HBL (fig. 9). Within the Ordinary Group, C. musseri has a wider braincase relative to skull length, more robust body (fig. 17), longer rostrum relative to skull length (fig. 10), and paler feet than C. normalis. Crocidura nigripes has a short tail, like that of C. normalis, but is substantially larger, usually has darker feet, and the skull of C. nigripes shows a more prominent dentition, longer rostrum, and narrower interorbital region relative to skull length (fig. 10). Crocidura ordinaria and C. solita are slightly larger than C. normalis, have longer tails, both absolutely and relative to HBL, have hypothenar pads larger than thenar pads, and have greater relative rostral lengths (RL/CIL), braincase breadths (BB/CIL), and interorbital widths (IOW/CIL) (fig. 10).   
 COMMENTS: In addition to the coalescent species delimitation analyses described above in the Crocidura parva account, we used BPP to test species limits between C. normalis and C. mediocris. The dataset consisted of 20 specimens of C. mediocris and 36 individuals of C. normalis. The sequence alignment is 93% complete. All replicates supported these species with 1.0 posterior probability. Unfortunately, we do not have nuclear exon data from the two specimens of C. normalis from Mt. Mekongga, which formed a clade independent of C. normalis from other localities in the cytochrome b and mitogenome gene trees (figs. 4, 5). In our UCE inferences, the Mekongga specimens of C. normalis are represented and the species is monophyletic in both our species tree and concatenated estimates (figs. 7, 8). If specimens from additional localities from the south-east and west-central areas of endemism are collected, reexamining these populations would be worthwhile. In both UCE estimates, C. normalis is a member of a clade comprising several Small-Bodied Group members and C. caudipilosa (figs. 7, 8).   TABLE 16   Results of Principal Components Analysis of External Measurements of Crocidura nigripes   
 a Table entries for variables are component loadings.   
 Ruedi (1995) referred three specimens (IZEA 4393, 4394, 4042) to Crocidura lea and later Ruedi et al. (1998) sequenced a fragment of cytochrome b in one of these individuals (IZEA 4394). That sequence is identical to our C. normalis cytochrome b sequences from Mt. Rorekatimbo. Although we have not examined these three specimens, we presume they all represent C. normalis.   
SPECIMENS EXAMINED: Mt. Gandang Dewata (MZB 34809, 34810, 34812, 34821; FMNH 218604–218613, 218652–218658, 218973– 218975), Mt. Katopasa (NMV Z61813), Mt. Latimojong (FMNH 213006–213008, 213010, 213011, 213013, 213014, 213030, 213032; MVZ 237595, 237622–237624), Mt. Mekongga (MWFB 8151, 8154), Mt. Rorekatimbo (FMNH 213174– 213189, 213257, 213438; MZB 43010).
description: Published as part of Esselstyn, Jacob A., Achmadi, Anang S., Handika, Heru, Swanson, Mark T., Giarla, Thomas C. & Rowe, Kevin C., 2021, Fourteen New, Endemic Species Of Shrew (Genus Crocidura) From Sulawesi Reveal A Spectacular Island Radiation, pp. 1-109 in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2021 (454) on pages 78-82, DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090.454.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5788835