Rattus turkestanicus

• Main Authors: Guy G. Musser, Michael D. Carleton
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Smithsonian Institution Press 1993
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Mammalia; Rodentia; Muridae; Rattus; Rattus turkestanicus; Hodgson; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/7285105; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7285105

Rattus turkestanicus (Satunin, 1903). Ann. Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, 7:588. TYPE LOCALITY: Kirghizia, Oshskaya Obi., Lenniskii p-h, Arslanbob (= "Assam-bob"; see Pavlinov and Rossolimo, 1987). DISTRIBUTION: Records are from Kirghizia, NE Iran, N and E Afghanistan, N Pakistan, N India (Kashmir, Sikkim), Nepal, and S China (Yunnan and Guangdong) (see Musser and Newcomb, 1985:15). SYNONYMS: celsus, gilgitianus, khumbuensis, rattoides (Hodgson, 1845, not Pictet and Pictet, 1844), shigarus, vicerex (see Corbet, 1978c; Musser and Newcomb, 1985). COMMENTS: Despite continued use of rattoides for this complex (Caldarini et al., 1989; Corbet, 1978c), it is a synonym of R. rattus (Schütter and Thonglongya, 1971). Three distinctive morphological, chromosomal, and geographic forms are included under turkestanicus (Caldarini et al., 1989; Niethammer and Martens, 1975) and were first recognized by Hinton (1922) who treated all three as species (R. turkestanicus, R. vicerex, and R. rattoides) but also suggested that each may instead be a welldifferentiated subspecies. Rattus turkestanicus and R. vicerex were reported to occur sympatrically in Kashmir (Chakraborty, 1983), but those identifications have to be verified. A careful systematic treatment is needed to determine whether the three groups represent species or geographic variants. Oldest name for the complex is pyctoris (Hodgson, 1845; incorrectly listed as a synonym of R. nitidus by Ellerman, 1961) and would either replace turkestanicus if all samples represent a single species, or would identify Nepal and Sikkim populations. Published as part of Guy G. Musser & 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 on pages 661-662, DOI:10.5281/zenodo.7353098