Apodemus speciosus (Temminck, 1844) . In Siebold, Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Arnz et Socii, Lugduni Batavorum, p. 52.

TYPE LOCALITY: Japan .

DISTRIBUTION: Endemic to four primary islands and smaller islands of Japan (see map in Tsuchiya, 1974).

SYNONYMS: ainu, dorsalis, insperatus, miyakensis, navigator, sadoensis, tusimaensis.

COMMENTS: Subgenus Alsomys . Sympatric with A. peninsulae on Hokkaido. The citation is usually cited as 1845, but was published in 1844; see Holthuis and Sakai (1970). Some of the names (ainu, navigator, and miyakensis) have been listed as species (Vorontsov et al., 1977«; also discussion in Corbet, 1978c), but we follow Corbet (1978c) in recognizing only one species. This action was also reflected by Tsuchiya (1974), as he divided the names into two groups of A. speciosus based on biochemical and chromosomal evidence. Saitoh et al. (1989) provided additional biochemical information in context of systematic comparisons among Japanese Apodemus . Placed in subgenus Apodemus by Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987) and Mezhzherin and Zykov (1991).