Nesokia indica (Gray 1830)

[Arvicola] indica Gray 1830, Illustr. Indian Zool.: pl. xi (see Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1955, and Corbet and Hill, 1992).

Type Locality: India (uncertain).

Vernacular Names: Short-tailed Nesokia.

Synonyms: Nesokia bacheri Nehring 1897; Nesokia bailwardi Thomas 1907; Nesokia beaba Wroughton 1908; Nesokia boettgeri Radde and Walter 1889; Nesokia brachyura Büchner 1889; Nesokia buxtoni Thomas 1919; Nesokia chitralensis Schlitter and Setzer 1973; Nesokia dukelskiana Heptner 1928; Nesokia griffithi Horsfield 1851; Nesokia hardwickei (Gray 1837); Nesokia huttoni (Blyth 1846); Nesokia indicus (Peters 1860); Nesokia insularis Goodwin 1940; Nesokia legendrei Goodwin 1939; Nesokia myosura (Wagner 1845); Nesokia satunini Nehring 1899; Nesokia scullyi Wood-Mason 1876; Nesokia suilla Thomas 1907 .

Distribution: Modern range covers Bangladesh, N India (Bihar, West Bengal, Punjap, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Rajasthan; Agrawal, 2000; Chakraborty and Agrawal, 2000), Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel-Jordan, NE Egypt, NW China (Xinjiang, south of Tian Shan; Wang, 2003, and Zhang et al., 1997), Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Reviewed by Corbet (1978 c) and Corbet and Hill (1992). Chromosomal data in different contexts reported by Thelma and Rao (1982), Gadi and Sharma (1983), Rao et al. (1983), Juyal et al. (1989), and Dubey and Raman (1992). External, cranial, and dental morphology, along with albumin immunology supports a close phylogenetic relationship with Bandicota (Misonne, 1969; Musser and Brothers, 1994; Niethammer, 1977; Watts and Baverstock, 1994 b; Wroughton, 1908 a), and electrophoretic comparisons of eight loci indicated a sister-species alliance with B. indica (Radtke and Niethammer, 1984 [1985]). Chromosomal traits are closely similar in N. indica and Bandicota bengalensis (Gadi and Sharma, 1983) . Substantial morphological variation is present among geographic samples of N. indica, and careful systematic revision is required to determine whether this variation represents one or more species. Geographic reviews covering taxonomy, ecology, and distribution available for India (Agrawal, 2000), Pakistan (Roberts, 1977, 1997), Israel and Jordan (Mendelssohn and Yom-Tov, 1999; Qumsiyeh, 1996), Syria (Kock and Nader, 1983; Misonne, 1957), Iran (Lay, 1967), Egypt (Osborn and Helmy, 1980), and regions adjacent to Russia (Gromov and Erbajeva, 1995). Inclusion of SE Anatolia (Turkey) in a distribution map of N. indica was probably based on nearby Syrian records and the species has yet to be found in Turkey (Kryštufek and Vohralík, 2001). Fossils from late Pleistocene sites in Egypt and N Sudan are beyond modern range in NE Africa (Osborn and Helmy, 1980).