Meriones (Meriones) tamariscinus (Pallas 1773)

[Mus] tamariscinus Pallas 1773, Reise Prov. Russ. Reichs, Vol. 2: 702.

Type Locality: Kazakhstan, Saraitschikowski (= Saraichik).

Vernacular Names: Tamarisk Jird.

Synonyms: Meriones (Meriones) ciscaucasicus (Satunin 1903); Meriones (Meriones) collium Severtsov 1873; Meriones (Meriones) jaxartensis (Ognev and Heptner 1928); Meriones (Meriones) kokandicus Heptner 1933; Meriones (Meriones) montanus Severtsov 1873; Meriones (Meriones) satschouensis (Satunin 1903); Meriones (Meriones) tamaricinus (Pallas 1779) .

Distribution: N Caucasus and Kazakhstan to the Altai Mtns, and through N Xinjiang and Nei Mongol of China (Wang, 2003; Zhang et al., 1997).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Meriones . Reviewed by Corbet (1978 c) and Pavlinov et al. (1990); regional reviews offered by G. M. Allen (1940, China), and Ma et al. (1987, Xinjiang). Range in Russia, taxonomy, contrasts with other species and additional characteristics reviewed by Gromov and Erbajeva (1995). The restriction to subgenus Meriones reflects the very distinctive male genital morphology of M. tamariscinus compared with other species of Meriones (Pavlinov, 1986) .