Mesocricetus auratus (Waterhouse, 1839) . Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1839:57.

TYPE LOCALITY: Syria, Aleppo .

DISTRIBUTION: Asia Minor (Turkey) to Syria; perhaps Lebanon and Israel.

COMMENT: Formerly included brandti; see Zilfian et al., 1975, [Abstr. Symp. Syst. and Cytogenet. Mamm.], Moscow, p. 18- 19. Corbet, 1978:92, and FS included brandti in this species, but stated that it may be distinct. Records from Lebanon and Israel were doubted by Atallah, 1977, Saugetierk. Mitt., 25: 320. A detailed bibliography was presented in Kittel, 1969, Z. Verzuchstierk., 11: 1 -115. The pet and laboratory strains of golden hamster were derived from this species; see Corbet, 1978:92.

ISIS NUMBER: 5301410008021001001.