HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER RODENTIA
--> SUBORDER MYOMORPHA
--> SUPERFAMILY Muroidea
--> FAMILY Cricetidae
--> SUBFAMILY Arvicolinae
--> GENUS Microtus
--> SUBGENUS See comments.
SPECIES Microtus (See comments.) longicaudus
Author: | Merriam, 1888. | Citation: | Am. Nat., 22: 934. | Common Name: | Long-tailed Vole | Type Locality: | USA, South Dakota, Custer Co., Black Hills, Custer, 5500 ft (1676 m). | Distribution: | Rocky Mountains and adjacent foothills, from E Alaska and N Yukon, south through British Columbia and SW Alberta, Canada, to E California and W Colorado; including Pacific coastal taiga to N California; disjunct southern pockets in S California, Arizona, and New Mexico, USA. | Status: | IUCN – Data Deficient as M. l. bernardinus, M. l. coronarius, and M. l. leucophaeus, otherwise Lower Risk (lc). | Comments: | Sometimes viewed as a Nearctic member of Chionomys (Anderson, 1959), or allocated to subgenus Microtus (Chaline, 1974; Hall, 1981), or to subgenus Aulacomys (Zagorodnyuk, 1990). Although strongly differentiated relative to other North American Microtus (e.g., Hooper and Hart, 1962; Modi, 1987; Moore and Janecek, 1990), the phyletic affinity of M. longicaudus lies with this complex and not Old World Chionomys (Chaline and Graf, 1988; Conroy and Cook, 2000a; Gromov and Polyakov, 1977; Zagorodnyuk, 1990). Extensive karyotypic (Judd and Cross, 1980) and molecular (Conroy and Cook, 2000b) variation reported, albeit not necessarily concordant, which invites continued taxonomic investigation. Well-defined geographic groupings of cytochrome b haplotypes interpreted in light of Pleistocene climatic changes, possible refugia, and likely isolation during northward reexpansion along different colonizing routes (Conroy and Cook, 2000b). Finley and Bogan (1995) discussed the inconsistent usage and problematic identification of subspecies (alticola, mordax, and longicaudus) in NW Colorado, an area which tellingly circumscribes some of the most distinctive populations (Southern Rockies Clade) identified by Conroy and Cook (2000b) and whose genetic divergence approaches that of other Microtus species. Includes coronarius, which Jones et al. (1986) viewed as an insular derivative and subspecies of M. longicaudus; MacDonald and Cook (1996) continued to list coronarius as species and advised broader comparisons with M. longicaudus populations to vindicate its status. See Smolen and Keller (1987, Mammalian Species, 271). |
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| Offspring: | Synonyms:
abditus A. B. Howell, 1923 alticola (Merriam, 1890) angusticeps Bailey, 1898 angustus Hall, 1931 baileyi Goldman, 1938 bernardinus Merriam, 1908 cautus J. A. Allen, 1899 coronarius Swarth, 1911 halli Hayman and Holt, 1941 incanus Lee and Durrant, 1960 latus Hall, 1931 leucophaeus (J. A. Allen, 1894) littoralis Swarth, 1933 macrurus Merriam, 1898 mordax (Merriam, 1891) sierrae Kellogg, 1922 vellerosus J. A. Allen, 1899
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