Microtus (Terricola) liechtensteini Wettstein 1927

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 : 1003

Microtus (Terricola) liechtensteini Wettstein 1927

Microtus (Terricola) liechtensteini Wettstein 1927 , Anz. Akad. Wiss. Wien, 20: 2.

Type Locality: Croatia, northwestern segment of Dinaric Alps, Velebit Mtns, summit of Mali Rajinac, 1699 m (Brunet-Lecomte and Kryštufek, 1993).

Vernacular Names: Liechtenstein's Pine Vole.

Synonyms: Microtus (Terricola) petrovi Kryštufek 1983 .

Distribution: SE Alps in N Italy (east of Adige River valley in Trentino), S and C Austria, and Slovenia; south to the NW Dinaric Alps in Croatia; southern isolates in Pannonian Plain in Croatia, C Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Mt Tara in W Serbia (Brunet-Lecomte and Kryštufek, 1993; Haring et al., 2000).

Discussion: Subgenus Terricola , M. subterraneus species group (placed in the duodecimcostatus species group by Pavlinov et al., 1995 a). Listed as a subspecies of Pitymys subterraneus ( Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951) , included in M. multiplex ( Krapp, 1982 b; Petrov, 1992), or viewed as a species ( Corbet, 1978 c; Kryštufek, 1983; Petrov and Zivkovic, 1971). Taxonomic treatment of liechtensteini reviewed by Brunet-Lecomte and Kryštufek (1993) and Spitzenberger et al. (2000). Two distinctive karyotypes exist, one (2n = 46-48, FN = 48-50) characteristic of M. multiplex ( Brunet-Lecomte and Volobouev, 1994; Graf and Meylan, 1980), the other (2n = 46, FN = 46) referrable to M. liechtensteini ( Graf and Meylan, 1980; Storch and Winking, 1977). Chromosomal data and hybridization reports have questioned the specific status of liechtensteini ( Graf and Meylan, 1980; Storch and Winking, 1977; Zima and Kral, 1984 a). Brunet-Lecomte and Volobouev (1994), however, considered the chromosomal rearrangements to cytogenetically isolate liechtensteini from M. multiplex . Separate specific status is also supported by comparative morphometric analyses of m1s (Brunet-Lecomte and Kryštufek, 1993; Spitzenberger et al., 2000) and phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences that include M. multiplex , M. subterraneus , M. bavaricus , and M. liechtensteini ( Haring et al., 2000) . These sequence data also suggest an early divergence of M. subterraneus relative to the M. multiplex-M. liechtensteini clade, but cannot discount the past occurrence or continuing sporadic hybridization between the latter and M. subterraneus . Haring et al. (2000) further speculated on glacial refugia: M. bavaricus in the N Alps, M. liechtensteini in the Dinaric Mtns, and M. multiplex in the SW Alps. In Slovenia, M. liechtensteini and M. subterraneus are mostly parapatric and can be cleanly distinguished by morphometric analysis (Kryštufek, 1991). Brunet-Lecomte and Kryštufek’s (1993) morphometric study identified petrovi as a subspecies of M. liechtensteini , not M. multiplex . Tarsal glands compared with those of M. subterraneus by Hrabe (1977).