Tatera indica (Hardwicke 1807)

[Tatera] indica (Hardwicke 1807), Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., 8: 279.

Type Locality: India, United Province, between Benares and Hardwar.

Vernacular Names: Indian Gerbil.

Synonyms: Tatera bailwardi Wroughton 1906; Tatera ceylonica Wroughton 1906; Tatera cuvieri (Waterhouse 1838); Tatera dunni Wroughton 1917; Tatera hardwickei (Gray 1843); Tatera monticola Wroughton 1906; Tatera otarius (Cuvier 1838); Tatera persica Wroughton 1906; Tatera pitmani Cheesman 1921; Tatera scansa Wroughton 1906; Tatera sherrini Wroughton 1917; Tatera taeniurus (Wagner 1843) .

Distribution: An extensive range from SE Anatolia in Turkey (Yi it et al., 2001), Syria, Iraq, and Kuwait through Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan into most of Indian Peninsula north to the Terai region of S Nepal; also Sri Lanka (see Bates, 1988).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Revised by Bates (1988), who recognized three distinctive subspecies. Regional reviews include the segments from Arabian Peninsula (Harrison and Bates, 1991), SE Turkey (Yi it et al., 2001), Syria (Misonne, 1957), Iran (Lay, 1967; Morshed and Patton, 2002), Afghanistan (Hassinger, 1973), Pakistan (Roberts, 1977), and India (Agrawal, 2000; Chakraborty and Agrawal, 2000). This is the only species that Pavlinov (1981 b) and Pavlinov et al. (1990) allocated to Tatera . Karyotype and chromosomal polymorphism of Indian samples documented by Rao et al. (1968) and Yosida (1981); chromosomal data summarized by Qumsiyeh and Schlitter (1991), and karyotype of Turkish population (2n = 68, FN = 84) documented by Yi it et al. (2001). Ecology and distribution in the Aravalli Ranges in Rajasthan, India documented by Prakash et al. (1995 a, b). Late Pleistocene fossils from C India described as T. cf indica by Patnaik (1995).