La Touche Mole
| La Touche Mole | ||||||||||||
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| Mogera latouchei | ||||||||||||
| Thomas , 1907 |
The La Touche-Mole ( Mogera latouchei ) is a poorly understood mammalian species from the family of moles (Talpidae). It occurs in the southern part of China and northwestern Vietnam . The main habitat is arable land, and hardly any information is available about the way of life. The representative mole was scientifically introduced in 1907 and was long considered a subspecies of the Chinese island mole . However, various anatomical and genetic analyzes give it its own species status. The type epithet honors the Irish naturalist John David Digues La Touche (1861-1935), who had collected the type specimens in 1898.
features
Habitus
The head-body length is measured based on five individuals 87 mm to 115, the tail length is 15 to 20 mm. The ratio of the tail length to the length of the rest of the body varies from 14.2 to 18.1%, which is more pronounced than in Chinese island mole ( Mogera insularis ) or in a Kano-mole ( Mogera kanoana ) with its shorter tails. It is more like the corresponding values for the Japanese representatives of the East Asian moles. According to other information, the La Touche mole has a head-to-trunk length of 116 to 130 mm and a tail length of 12 to 16 mm, as well as a hind foot length of 13.5 to 15.5 mm and a weight of 33 to 51.8 G. The La Touche mole is a small species with an almost slate-black fur color. The upper side is faintly faded dark brown. The underside is more soot-colored. The neck and upper chest are lighter dark gray. The backs of the hands and feet as well as the tail are covered with thin, white hair. The nasal mirror protrudes clearly.
Skull and dentition features
The skull becomes an average of 28.2 mm long. In its shape it largely corresponds to that of the Kano mole. It is characterized by a long and slender rostrum , a narrow and rounded brain skull and weakly developed zygomatic arches . The opening of the external auditory canal is relatively wide, in the feature the La Touche mole occupies a mediating position between the Kano mole with a very wide and the Chinese mole with a narrow opening. The teeth 42 is composed of teeth with the following tooth formula : . The upper row of teeth is 11.5 mm long, the lower 10.8 mm. The molars take up 5.1 mm and 5.6 mm respectively.
Genetic traits
The karyotype is 2n = 30, the number of autosome arms is NFa = 52. The diploid number is the lowest of all moles to date. The X chromosome is small and metacentric, the Y chromosome has not yet been determined.
Occurrence
The distribution area of the La Touche mole extends from southern China to northern Vietnam . The occurrence in Vietnam is very fragmented. Evidence there is limited to the north-west of the country, including from the vicinity of Sa Pa in the province of Lào Cai and from the Muong-Do nature reserve in the province of Sơn La , and also from the province of Lai Châu .
Habitat and way of life
The La Touche mole inhabits farmland and possibly forests . In Vietnam it can be found at low altitudes and occurs sympatric with the Kuznetsov mole ( Euroscaptor kuznetsovi ) and the Orlov mole ( Euroscaptor orlovi ). Nothing is known about his way of life.
Systematics
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Internal systematics of the East Asian moles according to Shinohara et al. 2014
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The La Touche mole is a separate species within the genus of the East Asian moles ( Mogera ) and the mole family (Talpidae). It forms by molecular genetic studies, the sister species of the two Taiwanese representatives of moles, the Chinese island Mole ( Mogera insularis ) and the Kano-Mole ( Mogera kanoana ). The separation of the La Touche mole from the other two forms had already occurred in the Miocene around 8 million years ago, the separation of the Kano from the Chinese island mole occurred in the Pliocene around 4.5 million years ago. The La Touche mole is sometimes considered a subspecies of the Chinese island mole, but recent studies based on morphological and karyological properties have confirmed that the shape represents a valid species.
The La Touche mole was described as a separate species by Oldfield Thomas in 1907 . Thomas used several individuals from Kuatun in the Chinese province of Fujian , the type region of the species with a height of around 1070 m above sea level. As a holotype , he determined a full-grown female animal 96 mm in length, which had been collected by John David Digues La Touche (1861-1935) in the late 19th century. He also named the species after him. Thomas had previously assigned the animals from southern China to the Japanese mole ( Mogera wogura ).
Threat and protection
The La Touche mole is currently not covered by the IUCN . Nothing is known about its population status.
literature
- Oldfield Thomas: The Duke of Bedford's Zoological Exploration in Eastern Asia. - V. Second List of Mammals from Korea. , Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, No. 32, 1907, pp. 462-466
- Glover Morrill Allen : The Insectivores In: The Mammals of China and Mongolia , Part 1, 1938, pp. 78-79
- Shin-ichiro Kawada, Akio Shinohara, Shuji Kobayashi, Masashi Harada, Sen-ichi Oda and Liang-Kong Lin: Revision of the mole genus Mogera (Mammalia: Lipotyphla: Talpidae) from Taiwan. Systematics and Biodiversity 5 (2), 2007, pp. 223-240
- Boris Kryštufek and Masaharu Motokawa: Talpidae (Moles, Desmans, Star-nosed Moles and Shrew Moles). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths, Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4 , p. 617
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Shin-ichiro Kawada, Akio Shinohara, Shuji Kobayashi, Masashi Harada, Sen-ichi Oda and Liang-Kong Lin: Revision of the mole genus Mogera (Mammalia: Lipotyphla: Talpidae) from Taiwan. Systematics and Biodiversity 5 (2), 2007, pp. 223-240
- ↑ a b Boris Kryštufek and Masaharu Motokawa: Talpidae (Moles, Desmans, Star-nosed Moles and Shrew Moles). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths, Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4 , p. 617
- ↑ a b Shin-ichiro Kawada, Sen-ichi Oda, Hideki Endo, Liang Kong Lin, Nguyen Truong Son and Dang Ngoc Can: A Comparative Karyological Study of Taiwanese and Vietnamese Mogera (Insectivora, Talpidae) and Classification. Memoir of the National Museum of Nature and Science 46, 2010, pp. 47-56
- ↑ Nguyen Xuan Dang, Nguyen Xuan Nghia, Nguyen Truong Son and Tran Hong Hai: Study of Mammal Diversity in Xuan Nha and Muong Do Nature Reserves, Son La Province, Northwestern Vietnam. Mammal Study 37 (1), 2012, pp. 55-62
- ↑ Alexei V. Abramov, Dang Ngoc Can, Bui Tuan Hai and Nguyen Truong Son: An annotated checklist of the insectivores (Mammalia, Lipotyphla) of Vietnam. Russian Journal of Theriology 12 (3), 2013, pp. 57-70
- ↑ Akio Shinohara, Shin-Ichiro Kawada, Nguyen Truong Son, Chihiro Koshimoto, Hideki Endo, Dang Ngoc Can and Hitoshi Suzuki: Molecular phylogeny of East and Southeast Asian fossorial moles (Lipotyphla, Talpidae). Journal of Mammalogy 95 (3), 2014, pp. 455-466
- ↑ Hisashi Abe: Revision of the Asian Moles of the Genus Mogera Journal of the Mammal Society of Japan 20 (1), 1995, pp. 51-68
- ^ Robert S. Hoffmann and Darrin Lunde: Order Soricomorpha - Shrews and Moles. In: Andrew T. Smith and Yan Xie (Eds.): A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 , p. 324
- ^ S. Kawada, NT Son and DN Can: Moles (Insectivora, Talpidae, Talpinae) of Vietnam. Bulletin of the National Museum of Nature and Science 35, 2009, pp. 89-101.
- ↑ Oldfield Thomas: The Duke of Bedford's Zoological Exploration in Eastern Asia. - V. Second List of Mammals from Korea. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 32, 1907, pp. 462-466 ( [1] )
- ↑ Oldfield Thomas: On mammals collected by Mr. JD La Touche at Kuatun, NW Fokien, China. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1898, pp. 769-775 ( [2] )