Neodon forresti Hinton 1923

Neodon forresti Hinton 1923, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 11 (9): 156.

Type Locality: S China, NW Yunnan, Divide between Mekong and Yangtze Rivers (27º30' N), 11,000 -12,000 ft (3350-3660 m).

Vernacular Names: Forrest's Mountain Vole.

Distribution: Extreme NW Yunnan, China (Hinton, 1923), and northernmost Burma (Ellerman, 1961), 3350-3660 m.

Discussion: Morphologically close to N. irene but body size larger, pelage longer and darker (Hinton, 1923). Monographed as species by G. M. Allen (1940), but he noted that forresti may be only a southern subspecies of irene, as later recognized by Ellerman (1947 a, 1961); forresti was subsequently arranged as a subspecies of N. sikimensis (Weigel, 1969) . Intergradation between forresti and irene has never been demonstrated. None of the 112 specimens of irene we studied from NW Sichuan (see measurements in Lawrence, 1982), or those documented by G. M. Allen from S Gansu and N Yunnan, overlap in size with specimens of forresti of comparable age.