Small Japanese Field Mouse

discussion

Discussion: argenteus group. Zimmermann (1962) included A. argenteus in the subgenus Alsomys, but this allocation was questioned by Corbet (1978 c: 136). Based on external, cranial, dental, and chromosomal features, Musser et al. (1996: 184) could not place A. argenteus in any existing subgenus of Apodemus and wrote that the species " needs to be compared with other species in the genus within a revisionary study that focuses on phylogenetic analyses of morphological and biochemical characters before we can identify its nearest phyletic affinity. " Comparison of genomes among several species of Apodemus, as assessed by differentiation of ribosomal DNA restriction sites (Suzuki et al., 1990), restriction-fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) of nuclear DNA (Chelomina, 1998; Chelomina et al., 1995), mtDNA cytochrome b sequences (Chelomina et al., 1998 b; Liu et al., 2004) and phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome b and nuclear IRBP gene sequences (Serizawa et al., 2000; Suzuki et al., 2003), indicates that A. argenteus differs from all other European and Asian species analyzed, and represents an ancient independent lineage, one of the three initial evolutionary radiations l

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae

distribution

Distribution: Endemic to Japan (Dobson, 1994); the four main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu) along with some smaller ones (Abe and Ishii, 1987; Corbet, 1978 c: 136; Kaneko, 1994).

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae

discussion

COMMENTS: Subgenus Alsomys, but subgeneric allocation was questioned by Corbet (1978 c: 136). Because the type-series of Mus argenteus Temminck, 1844 is composite, a lectotype was chosen by Smeenk et al. (1982), which stabilizes the name of this species. Year of publication of argenteus is usually listed as 1845 but description appeared in 1844 (Smeenk et al., 1982). Electrophoretic analyses of 17 enzymes reported by Saitoh et al. (1989) in context of biochemical systematics of Japanese Apodemus. Chromosomal and morphometric comparisons between A. argenteus and other Japanese Apodemus reviewed by Vorontsov et al. (1977 a).

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae

distribution

DISTRIBUTION: Japan; the four main islands along with some of the smaller ones (Corbet, 1978 c: 136).

Order Rodentia - Family Muridae