Ryukyu shrew
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Eulipotyphla
Family: Soricidae
Genus: Crocidura
Species:
C. orii
Binomial name
Crocidura orii
Kuroda, 1924[2]
Ryukyu Shrew range
Synonyms

Crocidura dsinezumi orii[2] (protonym)
Crocidura russula orii[3]

The Ryukyu shrew (Crocidura orii), also known as Orii's shrew,[1] is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to the Amami Islands of Japan. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Taxonomy

Orii's shrew was first described, as a subspecies of the Dsinezumi shrew (Crocidura dsinezumi orii), by Kuroda Nagamichi in 1924; he named it after his collector, Orii Hyōjirō, who had provided the skin and skull of a single male from Amami Ōshima.[2]: 3  This type specimen, damaged during the initial trapping,[2]: 3  was destroyed by fire in 1945.[4]: 22  In their 1951 checklist, Ellerman and Morrison-Scott listed the shrew instead as a subspecies of the Greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula orii).[3]: 81  In 1961, after the recovery of a second individual from the stomach of a hime habu or Ryukyu Island pit viper (Ovophis okinavensis), Imaizumi Yoshinori elevated the shrew to species rank, based on morphological comparison with other species of Crocidura.[4] In 1998, after the study of five further specimens from Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima, Motokawa Masaharu [ja] confirmed this taxonomic treatment.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Laginha Pinto Correia, D. (2016). "Crocidura orii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T5590A22302169. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T5590A22302169.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Kuroda, N. (1924). On new mammals from the Riu Kiu Islands and the vicinity. Tokyo: Published by the author. pp. 1–14.
  3. ^ a b Ellerman, J.R.; Morrison-Scott, T.C.S. (1951). Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946. British Museum (Natural History).
  4. ^ a b Imaizumi, Y. (1961). オリイジネズミの分類上の地位について [Taxonomic status of Crocidura dsinezumi orii]. Journal of the Mammalogical Society of Japan. 2 (1): 17–22. doi:10.11238/jmammsocjapan1952.2.17.
  5. ^ Motokawa, M. (1998). "Reevaluation of the Orii's shrew, Crocidura dsinezumi orii Kuroda, 1924 (Insectivora, Soricidae) in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan". Mammalia. 62 (2): 249–267. doi:10.1515/mamm.1998.62.2.259.
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