Crocidura aleksandrisi, Vesmanis, 1977
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.6870843 |
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DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6870219 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/3D474A54-A04D-8721-FFFD-AFD91758F4E3 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Crocidura aleksandrisi |
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Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrew
Crocidura aleksandrisi View in CoL
French: Crocidure dAleksandrs / German: Cyrenaika-\ WeiRzahnspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana de Cirenaica
Other common names: Alexandrian Shrew, Cyrenaica Shrew, Lybian Shrew
Taxonomy. Crocidura aleksandrisi I. Vesmanis, 1977 View in CoL ,
5 km west of Tocra (32° 31’ N, 20° 34’ E), Cyrenaica , Libya. GoogleMaps
G. L. Ranck in 1968 referred to C. aleksandrisi as C. russula . According to S. Dubey and colleagues in 2007, it is an old lineage in the C. suaveolens group. Monotypic.
Distribution. Endemic to Libya (N part of Cyrenaica). View Figure
Descriptive notes. Head-body 56-65 mm, tail 39-46 mm, ear 7-5-8 mm, hindfoot
11-12 mm; weight 4-6-5 g. Condylo-incisive lengths are 16-6-18 mm. The Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrew is small and looks like a small form of the European Lesser White-toothed Shrew ( C. suaveolens ), with short (c.2 mm) soft pelage and relatively long tail (¢.70% of head-body length). Dorsum is grayish brown, with slight russet tinge; hairs are dark and have gray bases. Venteris gray to grayish brown, with smooth transition zone; hairs have dark gray bases and gray to pale brown tips. Chin, throat, and chest are gray. Forefeet and hindfeet are brown. Tail is brown above and slightly paler below, with ¢.90% pilosity. Skull is unspecialized: rostrum and maxillary are medium, interorbit is wide, braincase width is medium, and braincase heightis high. I' is long and hooked, and upper third molar is wide. Karyotype is 2n = 40.
Habitat. Mediterranean vegetation such as wadis, scrub, and littoral and rocky areas. The Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrew is thought to occur in degraded habitats.
Food and Feeding. The Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrew probably eats various invertebrates.
Breeding. The Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrew is presumably similar to the Lesser White-toothed Shrew (CC. suaveolens ) and relatives.
Activity patterns. The Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrew is probably nocturnal.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Remains of Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrews were abundant in pellets of common barn-owls (7yto alba) in Wadi al Kuf, Cyrenaica. More than 100 skulls have been found in owl pellets. At least three surveys have been carried out there, and all of them found Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrews.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Cyrenaica White-toothed Shrew has been collected from the 1960s through the 1990s, with no indication of population decline. It is found in a relatively small area of Libya, but there is no indication that there are major conservation threats across its distribution. It could be affected by habitat loss, but no conservation measures are currently in place.
Bibliography. Dubey, Cosson et al. (2007), Hutterer (2005b, 2008c, 2013b), Ranck (1968), Vesmanis (1977).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
