A new record of a mammal in China and new provincial records in Xizang, Hubei and Sichuan

Abstract

Recent surveys of small mammals in China discovered national and provincial records. Taxonomic and phylogenetic studies based on morphological and molecular comparisons were used to assess the collections. Collected on the Pamir Plateau in Tashikuergan county, Xinjiang, Alticola albicauda is a new record for China. The tail of this species is wholly white ending in a white tuft. The belly is pure white. A phylogenetic analysis based on Cyt b places it together Alticola albicauda and forms the sister of Alticola argentatus. The K2P distance between them is 5%. Further, Phodopus roborovskii was captured in Xizang and it is a new record for Tibet Autonomous Region. It does not differ morphologically from conspecifics elsewhere in China and its Cyt b K2P distance from a population in Ningxia is 0.6%. Meanwhile, collections verify the presence of Eothenomys fidelis in Sichuan for the first time. The characters of its teeth and proportion of TL/HBL are the same as in topotypes from Lijiang, Yunnan, but the specimens are smaller than the topotypes and they belong to a different subclade in the Cyt b tree. An average K2P distance of only 1.1% separates the two populations, suggesting they are conspecific. Finally, collections verify the presence of Ochotona xunhuaensis in Hubei for the first time. All specimens have a congenial tragus and flattened skull, which are diagnostic characters of the species, and K2P distance of Cyt b between the Hubei population and topotypes is 1.9%.

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