Crocidura shantungensis Miller, 1901 —Asian Lesser White-toothed Shrew

Crocidura shantungensis Miller, 1901 p.158; Type locality-Shantung, China; Jo et al., 2012 p.250.

C. coreae Thomas, 1907b p.462; Type locality- Korea (Pyeongchang, Gimhwa, and Cheongju); Tate, 1947 p.60.

C. longicauda Mori, 1927 p.28; Type locality- Seoul; Tate, 1947 p.60.

C. dsinezumi quelpartis Kuroda, 1934a p.236; Jones & Johnson, 1960 p.562; Corbet, 1978 p.28; Yoon, 1992 p.26.

C. utsuryoensis Mori, 1937 p.41; Type locality- Ulleung Island, Korea; Won, 1958 p.451; Won, 1967 p.277; Won, 1968 p.72.

C. ilensis shantungensis: Kuroda, 1940 p.182 .

C. ilensis coreae: Imaizumi, 1949 p.80 .

C. suaveolens coreae: Bobrinskoy & Kuzyakin in Bobrinskoy et al., 1944 p.57; Jones & Johnson, 1960 p.567.

C. suaveolens: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.76; Corbet, 1978 p.27.

C. bolivari: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.85 (Ulleung Island).

C. suaveolens shantungensis: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.77; Won, 1958 p.451; Won, 1967 p.275; Won, 1968 p.66; Corbet, 1978 p.23; Yoon, 1992 p.24.

C. russula quelpartis: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.81; Won, 1958 p.451; Won, 1967 p.273.

C. suaveolens utsuryoensis: Jones & Johnson, 1960 p.569; Corbet, 1978 p.23; Yoon, 1992 p.24.

C. suaveolens: Won, 1968 p.65; Han, 1994 p.45; Won & Smith, 1999 p.9; Han, 2004a p.27.

C. lasiura quelpartis: Won, 1968 p.71 .

C. dsinezumi: Corbet, 1978 p.28; Han, 1994 p.45; Won & Smith, 1999 p.8; Han, 2004a p.25.

Range: The distribution of C. shantungensis covers the Korean Peninsula and most Korean islands (Fig. 8; 3 rd National Nature-Environmental Survey 2006–2013 unpublished electronic data).

Remarks: Although C. shantungensis was regarded as a subspecies of C. suaveolens, Jiang and Hoffmann (2001) demonstrated morphological differences between C. shantungensis and C. suaveolens and treated C. suaveolens shantungenis as a separate species with the population in East Asia referred to C. shantungensis, as originally described by Miller (1901). Genetic investigations using mtDNA (Ohdachi et al. 2004) and nuclear genes (Dubey et al. 2008) distinguished C. shantungensis from C. suaveolens .

In Korea, Mori (1937) differentiated the Asian lesser white-toothed shrew on Ulleung Island from the peninsula population, C. s. coreae Thomas, 1907 and recognized it as the Subspecies C. s. utsuryoensis Mori, 1937 . Although the population on Jeju Island was considered a subspecies of C. dsinezumi or C. russula, Iwasa et al. (2001) identified the population of white-tooted shrew on Jeju Island as C. shantungensis qeulpartis Kuroda, 1934 (Jo et al. 2012).

Conservation status: Although the North Korean government listed this species as ‘Rare’ (MAB National Committee of DPR Korea 2002), the South Korean government deemed C. shantungensis as ‘Least Concern’ (NIBR 2012).