Apodemus peninsulae (Thomas, 1907) —Korean Field Mouse

Micromys speciosus peninsulae Thomas, 1906 [1907] p.862; Type locality- Mungyeong, Korea; Kuroda, 1938 p.63.

Apodemus peninsulae: Miller, 1914 p.89; Kishida & Mori, 1931 p.378; Corbet, 1978 p.136; Han, 1994 p.47; Won & Smith, 1999 p.27; Han, 2004c p.127.

A. praetor Miller, 1914 p.89; Type locality- Upper Songhua (Sungari) River, Manchuria.

A. specious peninsulae: Allen, 1927 p.2; Kuroda, 1938 p.62; Tate, 1947 p.282; Won, 1958 p.447; Won, 1967 p.222; Won, 1968 p.185.

A. flavicollis: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.565 .

A. flavicollis peninsulae: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.566 .

A. sylvaticus: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.568 .

A. sylvaticus draco: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.571; Won, 1958 p.447.

A. peninsulae peninsulae: Jones & Johnson, 1965 p.387; Yoon, 1992 p.81.

A. specious: Won, 1968 p.184 .

Range: The Korean field mouse commonly occurs throughout Korea, except in remote islands (Fig. 128).

Remarks: Due to morphological differences such as the number of mammae, skull, and teeth, Jones (1956) promoted peninsulae to a distinct species. The presence of three region-specific mtDNA types of ancient divergence likely resulted from the regions of Primorye, Siberia and the Korean Peninsula functioning as refugia for A. peninsulae during a substantial period of the Quaternary glacial ages (Serizawa et al. 2002). According to a phylogenetic study based on cytochrome b, the Korean population is closer to populations from Shandong and Ningxia, China than from those of the Russian Far East (Sakka et al. 2010). A numerical taxonomy and genetic study suggests the occurrence of two subspecies (A. p. peninsulae and A. p. sowerbyi) in Korea (Heo 2002).