Apodemus is a genus of Muridae (true mice and rats) containing the field mice as well as other well-known species like the wood mouse and the yellow-necked mouse. The name is unrelated to that of the Mus genus, instead being derived from the Greek ἀπό-δημος (literally away from home).
Taxonomy
Related to the Ryūkyū spiny rats (
Tokudaia) and the prehistoric
Rhagamys – and far more distantly to
Mus and
Malacomys[Steppan et al. (2005)] – it includes these
species:
Apodemus sensu stricto
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Striped field mouse, A. agrarius
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Small Japanese field mouse, A. argenteus
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Chevrier's field mouse, A. chevrieri
Alsomys
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South China field mouse, A. draco
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Himalayan field mouse, A. gurkha
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Sichuan field mouse, A. latronum
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Korean field mouse, A. peninsulae
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Taiwan field mouse, A. semotus
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Large Japanese field mouse, A. speciosus
Sylvaemus
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Alpine field mouse, A. alpicola
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Yellow-necked mouse, A. flavicollis – includes A. arianus
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Caucasus field mouse, A. hyrcanicus
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Ward's field mouse, A. pallipes
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Black Sea field mouse, A. ponticus
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Wood mouse, A. sylvaticus
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Ural field mouse, A. uralensis
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Pygmy field mouse, A. u. microps
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Cimrman Ural field mouse, A. u. cimrmani
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Steppe field mouse, A. witherbyi
Karstomys
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Western broad-toothed field mouse, A. epimelas
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Eastern broad-toothed field mouse, A. mystacinus
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Kashmir field mouse, A. rusiges
Incertae sedis
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Apodemus avicennicus Darvish, Javidkar & Siahsarvie, 2006
Prehistoric species described from fossil remains include:
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A. gorafensis (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Italy)
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A. dominans (Kolzoi 1959)
Further reading
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Steppan, S.J.; Adkins, R.M.; Spinks, P.Q. & Hale, C. (2005): Multigene phylogeny of the Old World mice, Murinae, reveals distinct geographic lineages and the declining utility of mitochondrial genes compared to nuclear genes. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 37(2): 370–388. PDF fulltext
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Darvish, J.; Javidkar, M.; Siahsarvie, R. 2006. A new species of wood mouse of the genus Apodemus (Rodentia, Muridae) from Iran Zoology in the Middle East
