Mus abbotti a species of asia minor and the balkans muridae mammalia
Kratochvil, J.
Folia Zoologica 35(1): 3-20
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0139-7893
Accession: 005945943
A morphological and morphometric analysis was made of adults of a Mus abbotti population from the Balkan peninsular (n= 29) and one from the Transcaucasian USSR [Armenian-Turkish border] (n = 10). The first sample belongs to the subspecies Mus abbotti macedonicus Petrov et Ruzc, 1983 (syn. Mus hortulanus macedonicus), the second to the nominal race Mus abbotti abbotti, often incorrectly referred to in literature as Mus musculus spicilegus. There is very little difference between the two forms in morphological and metrical characters. This shows that Mus abbotti is an established and not very variable species. The author expresses the view that this species includes all the short-tailed populations of the genus Mus from Asia Minor and the Near East and from the Aegean region (islands and mainland). The study represents the first attempt in published works to determine the species of the genus Mus from central and south-eastern Europe according to morphological and metrical characters, and to provide a key according to the origin of the materaial (of population samples investigated).