Arvicola amphibius (Linnaeus 1758)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 963

Arvicola amphibius (Linnaeus 1758)

[Mus] amphibius Linnaeus 1758 , Syst. Nat., 10th ed., Vol. 1: 61 .

Type Locality: England.

Vernacular Names: Eurasian Water Vole.

Synonyms: Arvicola abbotti Hinton 1910 ; Arvicola abrukensis Reinwaldt 1927 ; Arvicola americana Gray 1842 ; Arvicola antiquus Pomel 1853 ; Arvicola aquaticus ( Cuvier 1817) ; Arvicola aquaticus (Billberg 1827) ; Arvicola argyropus Cabrera 1901 ; Arvicola armenius (Thomas 1907) ; Arvicola ater (Billberg 1827) ; Arvicola ater Macgillivray 1832 ; Arvicola bactonensis Hinton 1926 ; Arvicola barabensis (Heptner 1948) ; Arvicola brigantium Thomas 1928 ; Arvicola cantiana Hinton 1910 ; Arvicola caucasicus Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola cernjavskii Petrov 1949 ; Arvicola chosaricus Alexandrova 1976 ; Arvicola cubanensis Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola destructor Savi 1839 ; Arvicola djukovi Ognev and Formosov 1927 ; Arvicola ferrugineus Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola fuliginosus de Sélys Longchamps 1845 ; Arvicola gracilis Heller 1955 ; Arvicola greenii Hinton 1926 ; Arvicola hintoni Aharoni 1932 ; Arvicola hunasensis Carls 1986 ; Arvicola hyperryphaeus (Heptner 1948) ; Arvicola illyricus (Barrett-Hamilton 1899) ; Arvicola italicus Savi 1839 ; Arvicola jacutensis Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola jenissijensis Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola kalmankensis Zažigin 1980 ; Arvicola karatshaicus (Heptner 1948) ; Arvicola korabensis Martino 1937 ; Arvicola kuruschi Heptner and Formosov 1928 ; Arvicola kuznetzovi Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola littoralis (Billberg 1827) ; Arvicola martinoi Petrov 1949 ; Arvicola moenana Heller 1969 ; Arvicola meridionalis Ognev 1922 ; Arvicola minor de Sélys Longchamps 1845 ; Arvicola musignani de Sélys Longchamps 1839 ; Arvicola nigricans de Sélys Longchamps 1845 ; Arvicola obensis Egorin 1939 ; Arvicola ognevi Turov 1926 ; Arvicola pallasi Ognev 1913 ; Arvicola pallasi Ognev 1913 ; Arvicola paludosus (Linneaus 1771) ; Arvicola persicus de Filippi 1865 ; Arvicola pertinax Savi 1839 ; Arvicola praeceptor Hinton 1926 ; Arvicola reta Miller 1910 ; Arvicola rufescens (Satunin 1908) ; Arvicola scythicus Thomas 1914 ; Arvicola stankovici Petrov 1949 ; Arvicola tanaitica Kalabuchov and Raevsky 1930 ; Arvicola tataricus Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola taurica Ognev 1923 ; Arvicola terrestris ( Linnaeus 1758) ; Arvicola turovi Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola uralensis Egorin 1940 ; Arvicola variabilis Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola volgensis Ognev 1933 ; Arvicola weinheimensis Heller 1952 .

Distribution: Europe (excluding C and S Spain but including N Spain and N Portugal) east through Siberia to Lena River Basin (Yakutskaya); from Arctic Sea south to Lake Baikal and N Tien Shan Mtns of NW China (Xinjiang) through NW Iran, Iraq, N Israel, Caucasus, and Turkey ( Harrison and Bates, 1991; Lay, 1967); also in Great Britain except Ireland ( Corbet, 1978 c).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as A. terrestris .

Discussion: Linnaeus’ amphibius and terrestris , both proposed in 1758 on the same page, are now considered conspecific by most researchers, but which name should be properly used is unsettled. Corbet (1978 c:105) noted that " amphibius should have priority (presumably following Blasius (1857) as first reviser). Although strictly correct this is contrary to long-established usage and would cause considerable confusion and ambiguity" (also see discussion in Corbet et al., 1970:315). The usage is not so long established since the two forms were considered separate species through the middle 1900s ( Ellerman, 1941; Hinton, 1926 a; Miller, 1910, 1912 a), and in the first work that considered them as conspecific, Blasius (1857) placed terrestris as a subjective synonym of A. amphibius . The reminder of Blasius’ role as first revisor dates from Van den Brink (1967), who employed A. amphibius as the valid name as have other systematists (e.g., Panteleyev, 2000; Zagorodnyuk, 1992 c, 2000). In our view, confusion and ambiguity will be lessened only by using the name combination that is acknowledged as "strictly correct," A. amphibius .

The larger issue involves the homogeneity of populations arranged here under one nominal species. The exceptionally robust water voles in the English Isles ( amphibius ) have been maintained as specifically distinct from populations on the European continent ( terrestris ) ( Hinton, 1926 a; Miller, 1910, 1912 a). The status of italicus also deserves critical review: e.g., Miller (1912 a) had considered it a species, and Taberlet et al. (1998), using phylogeographic analyses of cytochrome b, found that samples from N Italy ( italicus ) are more genetically divergent than terrestris (here = A. amphibius ) is from scherman . Denser geographic sampling and more critical analyses of morphologies and molecules are warranted.

European populations are generally reviewed by Reichstein (1982 b) and Mitchell-Jones et al. (1999), and those of Russia and adjacent territories by Gromov and Erbajeva (1995). Faunal studies and checklists have proliferated to augment regional knowledge of the water vole’s morphology, distribution, and biology: Scotland (Stewart et al., 1999); Portugal ( Ramalhinho and Mathias, 1988); N Spain (Ventura, 1992, 1993 a, b, 1993 - 1994; Ventura and Gosalbez, 1989, 1992 b; Castien and Gosalbez, 1992); Italy ( Amori et al., 1999; Cantini, 1991); Switzerland ( Hausser, 1995); N Germany ( Dolch et al., 1994); Netherlands (Pelzers, 1992); E Baltic region ( Miljutin, 1997, 1998; Timm et al., 1998); Sumava Mtns region, SW Bohemia (Andĕra and Červený, 1994); Slovenia (Kryštufek, 1991); Slovakia ( Danko, 1994; Mošanský, 1994; Stanko, 1995; Stanko and Mošanský, 1994, 2000; Stanko et al., 2000); Czech Republic (Šmaha, 1996); greater Serbia and Montenegro ( Petrov, 1992); N Israel ( Qumsiyeh, 1996); Iran, Iraq, and nearby regions ( Harrison and Bates, 1991); and China ( Zhang et al., 1997).

Taxonomic and distributional studies have broadly covered morphological variability (Kratochvíl, 1980, 1983; Nikolaeva, 1982; Ventura, 1991). Morphometric analyses document variation along altitudinal transects and within geographic regions (Kratochvíl, 1981 b, 1983), and taxonomically illuminate variation among samples from the Iberian Peninsula and C Europe (Ventura and Gosálbez, 1989) and that in Traika Depression of Bulgaria (Mitev and Miteva, 1991). Ventura and Sans-Fuentes (1997) documented geographic variation in non-metric trait frequencies in SW Europe. Molar patterns have been studied in several contexts: dental ontogeny and its significance for interpreting relationships of fossil and living species (Kratochvíl, 1980); concordance with subspecies recognized in the Pyrenees and Iberian region ( Ventura, 1991); and correlation with geography, age, and diet ( Nikolaeva, 1982). Ventura et al. (1993) described abdominal arterial configuration of Spanish water voles and compared it with other muroids. Variation in cranial size and shape in relation to fluctuations in population density and environment explored by Galaktionov (1995) and Kovaleva et al. (1996). Corbet et al. (1970) morphometrically demonstrated that only one kind of Arvicola occurs in the British Isles and considered it to be conspecific with continental populations ( terrestris ).

Several fossil species have been described from the middle to late Pleistocene ( abbotti , antiquus , bactonensis , cantiana , chosaricus , gracilis , greenii , hunasensis , kalmankensis , praeceptor ) and have been treated as extinct subspecies ( Hutterer and Koenigswald, 1993; Kolfschoten, 1990; see review in Zagorodnyuk, 2000; see Maul et al., 2000, for a different view). Kratochvíl (1980, 1981 b) regarded the Pleistocene cantiana to be merely part of the chronocline of A. amphibius . European Pleistocene records are provided by Kowalski (2001).

Although Neolithic samples document the presence of Arvicola on Sicily 3000-4000 years ago, none was uncovered in an exhaustive survey of barn owl pellets, leading Catalisano and Sarà (1995) to conclude its recent extinction .