Paraechinus Trouessart 1879

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Erinaceomorpha, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 212-219 : 216

Paraechinus Trouessart 1879

Paraechinus Trouessart 1879 , Rev. Zool. Paris, 7: 242.

Type Species: Erinaceus micropus Blyth 1846

Synonyms: Macroechinus Satunin 1907 .

Species and subspecies: 4 species with 10 subspecies:

Species Paraechinus aethiopicus (Ehrenberg 1832)

Subspecies Paraechinus aethiopicus subsp. aethiopicus Ehrenberg 1832

Subspecies Paraechinus aethiopicus subsp. albatus Thomas 1922

Subspecies Paraechinus aethiopicus subsp. deserti Loche 1858

Subspecies Paraechinus aethiopicus subsp. ludlowi Thomas 1919

Subspecies Paraechinus aethiopicus subsp. pectoralis Heuglin 1861

Species Paraechinus hypomelas (Brandt 1836)

Subspecies Paraechinus hypomelas subsp. hypomelas Brandt 1836

Subspecies Paraechinus hypomelas subsp. blanfordi Anderson 1878

Subspecies Paraechinus hypomelas subsp. eversmanni Ognev 1927

Subspecies Paraechinus hypomelas subsp. sabaeus Thomas 1922

Subspecies Paraechinus hypomelas subsp. seniculus Thomas 1922

Species Paraechinus micropus (Blyth 1846)

Species Paraechinus nudiventris (Horsfield 1851)

Discussion: Reviewed by Corbet (1988). Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987:12-13) included Paraechinus in Hemiechinus as a valid subgenus, as did Frost et al. (1991:27), while Corbet (1988) argued for a generic separation of Paraechinus . Morshed and Patton (2002) provided DNA sequence data for animals from Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, representing Paraechinus aethiopicus and P. hypomelas . Their results show that Hemiechinus and Paraechinus are not sister taxa and are therefore best kept as distinct genera, but also show that P. aethiopicus and P. hypomelas are highly divergent (15.7%) from one another. Further support for a generic distinction of Paraechinus and Hemiechinus based on fingerprinting data was recently provided by Bannikova et al. (2002). Further molecular studies of the species united here under Paraechinus will add to our understanding of the phylogeny of this group, and may also lead to a further revision of the taxonomic arrangement of the species.