Sicista betulina Pallas, 1779 . Nova Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord., p. 332.

TYPE LOCALITY: SW Siberia, birch plain on bank of Ishim River, and Barabinskaya Step .

DISTRIBUTION: Boreal and montane forests from Norway, Denmark; east to Ussuri region of China and SE Siberia, north to the Arctic Circle at the White Sea and Usa River, south to Austria, Carpathian and Sayan Mtns (Corbet, 1978c). In the former USSR see Kuznetsov (1965) and Sludskii (1977). Sokolov et al. (1989) considered the Ussuri region records questionable.

SYNONYMS: montana, norvegica, taigica, tatricus (see Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951; and Corbet, 1978c).

COMMENTS: Sokolov et al. (1982, 1987b) gave karyological, and spermatozoal characters that distinguished this species from S. napaea and S. pseudonapaea . Pallas' type specimen was probably not preserved (Ognev, 1963b:33). Review and distribution in Europe provided by Pucek (1982). See comment under S. strandi .