Cricetulus obscurus Milne-Edwards, 1867 . Rech. Mamm., p. 136.

TYPE LOCALITY: China, N. Shansi, Saratsi .

DISTRIBUTION: Kansu to Shansi (China) and S.C. and S. E. Mongolia.

COMMENT: Included in barabensis by Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951:624; but see Sokolov and Orlov, 1980, [Guide to the Mammals of Mongolian P.R.], p. 123, who considered obscurus a karyotypically and morphologically distinct species.