Alticola (Alticola) argentatus (Severtzov 1879)

[Alticola (Alticola)] argentatus (Severtzov 1879), Izv. Soc. Nat. Anthrop. Etnogr., 8 (2): 82.

Type Locality: Tajikistan, Pamir Mountains, Murgab District, Alichur.

Vernacular Names: Silver Mountain Vole.

Synonyms: Alticola (Alticola) alaica Rosanov 1935; Alticola (Alticola) argurus (Thomas 1909); Alticola (Alticola) blanfordi (Scully 1880); Alticola (Alticola) gracilis Kashkarov 1923; Alticola (Alticola) lahulius Hinton 1926; Alticola (Alticola) leucurus (Severtsov 1873); Alticola (Alticola) longicauda Kashkarov 1923; Alticola (Alticola) longicaudata Ognev 1950; Alticola (Alticola) parvidens Schlitter and Setzer 1973; Alticola (Alticola) phasma Miller 1912; Alticola (Alticola) rosanovi Ognev 1940; Alticola (Alticola) saurica Afanasiev and Bazhanov 1948; Alticola (Alticola) shnitnikovi Ognev 1940; Alticola (Alticola) severtzovi (Tichomirov and Korchagin 1889); Alticola (Alticola) subluteus Thomas 1914; Alticola (Alticola) tarasovi Rossolimo and Pavlinov 1992; Alticola (Alticola) villosa Kashkarov 1923; Alticola (Alticola) worthingtoni Miller 1906 .

Distribution: Tien Shan mountains from Xinjiang in NW China (Ma et al., 1987); southwest through mountains of E Kazakhstan (Dzhungarskiy Alatau and other highlands) and Kyrgyzstan (Talasskiy Alatau and other local ranges); to Pamir Mtns of S Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, NW India (Agrawal, 2000, discussed under A. blanfordi), and the Hindu Kush of NW Pakistan and N Afghanistan; not present in Tibet or Himalayas.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Alticola, A. roylei-A. argentatus species group. Included under A. roylei by Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) and Corbet (1978 c), but separated as a species by Rossolimo (1989) and Rossolimo and Pavlinov (1992). Rossolimo and Pavlinov (1992) speculated that A. argentatus descended from a Himalayan form morphologically similar to A. roylei, and in turn was the ancestor to northern A. tuvinicus . Trait-frequency data of m1s and M3s among 10 geographic samples documented by Tokmergenov (1992); M3 variation analyzed with geometric techniques by Pavlinov et al. (1994). See Rossolimo et al. (1994) for recognized subspecies.