Ryukyu shrew

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Ryukyu shrew
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Eulipotyphla
Family: Soricidae
Genus: Crocidura
Species:
C. orii
Binomial name
Crocidura orii
Kuroda, 1924 [2]
Ryukyu Shrew area.png
Ryukyu Shrew range
Synonyms

Crocidura dsinezumi orii [2] (protonym)
Crocidura russula orii [3]

The Ryukyu shrew (Crocidura orii), also known as Orii's shrew, [1] is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to the Amami Islands of Japan. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Taxonomy

Orii's shrew was first described, as a subspecies of the Dsinezumi shrew (Crocidura dsinezumi orii), by Kuroda Nagamichi in 1924; he named it after his collector, Orii Hyōjirō, who had provided the skin and skull of a single male from Amami Ōshima. [2] :3 This type specimen, damaged during the initial trapping, [2] :3 was destroyed by fire in 1945. [4] :22 In their 1951 checklist, Ellerman and Morrison-Scott listed the shrew instead as a subspecies of the Greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula orii). [3] :81 In 1961, after the recovery of a second individual from the stomach of a hime habu or Ryukyu Island pit viper (Ovophis okinavensis), Imaizumi Yoshinori elevated the shrew to species rank, based on morphological comparison with other species of Crocidura . [4] In 1998, after the study of five further specimens from Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima, Motokawa Masaharu [ja] confirmed this taxonomic treatment. [5]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orii Hyōjirō</span> Japanese specimen collector (1883–1970)

Orii Hyōjirō was a Japanese specimen collector of birds and mammals. At least a hundred new species and subspecies were described based on the type specimens he collected, a 2014 review putting the total, among taxa currently recognized, at 14 species and 41 subspecies of mammal, and 6 species and 68 subspecies of bird. The 7 mammal and 10 bird taxa named in honour of "Orii of the Orient", as he came to be known, include the Ryūkyū shrew and now-extinct Daitō varied tit.

Sokolov's shrew is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Vietnam.

References

  1. 1 2 Laginha Pinto Correia, D. (2016). "Crocidura orii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T5590A22302169. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T5590A22302169.en . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kuroda, N. (1924). On new mammals from the Riu Kiu Islands and the vicinity. Tokyo: Published by the author. pp. 1–14.
  3. 1 2 Ellerman, J.R.; Morrison-Scott, T.C.S. (1951). Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946. British Museum (Natural History).
  4. 1 2 Imaizumi, Y. (1961). オリイジネズミの分類上の地位について[Taxonomic status of Crocidura dsinezumi orii]. Journal of the Mammalogical Society of Japan . 2 (1): 17–22. doi:10.11238/jmammsocjapan1952.2.17.
  5. Motokawa, M. (1998). "Reevaluation of the Orii's shrew, Crocidura dsinezumi orii Kuroda, 1924 (Insectivora, Soricidae) in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan". Mammalia. 62 (2): 249–267. doi:10.1515/mamm.1998.62.2.259.