519.

Nepalese Field Mouse

Apodemus gurkha

French: Mulot du Népal / German: Nepal-Waldmaus / Spanish: Ratén de campo de Nepal

Other common names: Himalayan Field Mouse, Himalayan Wood Mouse

Taxonomy. Apodemus gurkha Thomas, 1924,

Laprak, Ghorkha, Nepal.

Originally created as a subspecies of A. flavicollis, A. gurkha was elevated to species rank in 1996 by G. G. Musser and colleagues, who placed it in the Apodemus group. It has been accepted as a valid species by many authors, but some uncertainty over its phylogenetic position remains owing to large genetic distance observed with other Apodemus species. Indeed,it was placed in its own Gurkha clade by Liu Xiaoming and coworkers in 2004 and H. Suzuki and team in 2008. Monotypic.

Distribution. Nepal.

Descriptive notes. Head—body 85-116 mm, tail 97-130 mm, ear 16-19 mm, hindfoot 21-26 mm; weight 23-40 g. The Nepalese Field Mouse is uniformly gray dorsally and silvery gray ventrally. Tail is bicolored and long (120% of head-body length). Hindfeet are white. Females bear four pairs of mammae. Chromosomal complement has 2N = 48, FN = 52.

Habitat. Rhododendron and coniferous mountain forests at elevations between 2200 m and 3600 m.

Food and Feeding. Diet is composed of insects and vegetable matter.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. Nepalese Field Mice are nocturnal and fossorial.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The [UCN Red List. The Nepalese Field Mouse is considered endangered as result ofloss of its habitat.

Bibliography. Agrawal (2000), Corbet & Hill (1992), Liu Xiaoming et al. (2004), Martens & Niethammer (1972), Matsubara et al. (2004), Molur & Nameer (2008d), Molur et al. (2005), Musser et al. (1996), Pearch (2011), Suzuki et al. (2008).