Mesechinus Ognev 1951

Mesechinus Ognev 1951, Byull. Moskow Ova. Ispyt. Prir. Otd. Biol., 56: 8.

Type Species: Erinaceus dauuricus Sundevall 1842

Species and subspecies: 2 species:

Species Mesechinus dauuricus (Sundevall 1841)

Species Mesechinus hughi (Thomas 1908)

Discussion: Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987:11) proposed to place Mesechinus as subgenus in Erinaceus while Corbet (1988:163) included it in Hemiechinus, as did Bannikova et al. (1996) based on molecular data. In a new dendrogram based on fingerprinting data, Bannikova et al. (2002) included dauuricus also in Hemiechinus; the species plotted next though rather distant to four H. auritus samples. Frost et al. (1991:30) concluded that Mesechinus deserves full generic status, a conclusion supported by Gould (1995) in his comprehensive re-analysis of morphological hedgehog characters, and by Korablev et al. (1996) on the basis of chromosomal data.