Eothenomys proditor Hinton 1923

Eothenomys proditor Hinton 1923, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 11: 152.

Type Locality: China, Yunnan, Lichiang Range (=Yulongxuen), 13,000 ft (Kaneko, 1996 b, provided additional information) .

Vernacular Names: Yulongxuen Red-backed Vole.

Distribution: "Restricted to the border between Sichuan and Yunnan, at around 27- 28°N and 100- 102°E, and that it lives in meadows and in rocky areas" (Kaneko, 1996 b:109); known altitudinal range 2500-4200 m.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: E. chinensis species group. Morphologically a giant version of E. olitor (Kaneko, 1996 b) . Treated as a species of Eothenomys (G. M. Allen, 1940; Corbet and Hill, 1992; Hinton, 1926 a), but placed in Anteliomys (Gromov and Polyakov, 1977), and in subgenus Caryomys (Pavlinov et al., 1995 a) . In his account of E. proditor, Osgood (1932) explained why Anteliomys deserves at most subgeneric status within Eothenomys . Karyotype of E. proditor (2n = 32, FN = 56) differs from other Eothenomys so far reported (Yang et al., 1998), and Ye et al. (2002) would exclude it from the genus.