Steppe mouse

Species of rodent

Steppe mouse

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]

Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Chordata
Class:  | Mammalia
Order:  | Rodentia
Family:  | Muridae
Genus:  | Mus
Species:  |

M. spicilegus

Binomial name
Mus spicilegus

Petényi, 1882

Range of M. spicilegus

Extant, resident

The steppe mouse or mound-building mouse (Mus spicilegus) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.[2] It is found in grassland and other open areas in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.[1]

## Taxonomy

[edit]

Mus spicilegus ranges from Austria to Southern Ukraine and Greece.[3][4] Two subspecies are recognised, M. s. spicilegus, the nominate subspecies occupying most of the range, and M. s. adriaticus, an isolated sub-population on the Adriatic coast. It is one of four species of mice in the Mus subgenus with a western Palearctic distribution, the others being the Macedonian mouse (Mus macedonicus) (Balkans to Palestine and Iran), the Algerian mouse (Mus spretus) (Southern France, Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Morocco to Tunisia) and the Cypriot mouse (Mus cypriacus). Based on the molecular clock hypothesis, M. spicilegus and M. macedonicus seem to have diverged quite recently, between 0.29 and 0.17 mya, whereas the lineages giving rise to these and M. spretus diverged around 1 mya.[4]

## Description

[edit]

The head-and-body length is between 70 and 80 mm (2.76 and 3.15 in) and the tail is between 55 and 65 mm (2.17 and 2.56 in) long. The colour is mostly a uniform grey with no hint of redness, but some populations are bicoloured and have paler underparts. The tail is more slender than that of other related species.[5] This mouse is very similar in appearance to the common house mouse (Mus musculus), and the two are often confused. The most significant difference is the mound-building proclivities of Mus spicilegus, but these are only apparent at certain times of year.[3]

## Ecology

[edit]

This species is found in grassland, steppe, cultivated land, orchards, clearings and woodland borders.[1] It is unique among mice in its habit of building mounds in the autumn. These are constructed by a number of mice and can be up to 4 m (13 ft) in diameter, although a more normal size is 1 to 2 m (3 to 7 ft).[6] Some four to fourteen mice cooperate to build the mounds, and these have been shown to be closely related, probably through the mother's line.[6] The mound is built over storage chambers which can hold up to 10 kg (22 lb) of seeds and grains, underneath which is a nesting chamber. Up to twenty mounds per hectare (eight per acre) is typical but there can be many more than this under particularly favourable conditions.[1]

Breeding is seasonal in this mouse, taking place between about March and October. Young females, six to eight months old which have spent the winter in the mound, breed in the spring and may have four or five litters of young during the year; in central Ukraine, the litter size averages 6.7 young. During the summer, most animals live in simple burrows, but some continue to inhabit the mound, and if it survives intact, it may be reused in the autumn for winter quarters. New mounds are constructed between about mid-August and mid-November, when cereal crops are maturing and other plants producing seeds. The construction is done by juveniles, three to four weeks old, and the mound is their winter home, with adults occasionally cohabiting.[5] The mounds usually take two or three weeks to construct, and their size is dependent on the number of animals involved and the abundance of the food supply. The seeds of 84 species of plants have been found stored in the mound.[5]

## Status

[edit]

The steppe mouse is a common species with a wide range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern" while noting that the intensification of agriculture and destruction of grassy steppe may be a future threat.[1]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Rusin, M. (2024). "Mus spicilegus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2024: e.T13984A221790324. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
2. ^ Musser, G. G.; Carleton, M. D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1408–1409\. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
3. ^ a b Masseti, Marco (2012). Atlas of terrestrial mammals of the Ionian and Aegean islands. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 97–98\. ISBN 978-3-11-025458-7.
4. ^ a b The Mouse in Biomedical Research: History, Wild Mice, and Genetics. Academic Press. 2006. p. 16\. ISBN 978-0-08-046906-5.
5. ^ a b c Sokolov, V.E.; Kotenkova, E.V.; Michailenko, A.G. (2008). "Mus spicilegus". Mammalian Species (592): 1–6\. doi:10.2307/3504484. JSTOR 3504484.
6. ^ a b Garza, J.C.; Dallas, J.; Duryadi, D.; Gerasimov, S.; Croset, H.; Boursot, P. (1997). "Social structure of the mound-building mouse Mus spicilegus revealed by genetic analysis with microsatellites". Molecular Ecology. 6 (11): 1009–1016\. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294X.1997.00278.x. PMID 9394460. S2CID 13466936.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Mus spicilegus at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
* e

Extant species of subfamily Murinae (Melasmothrix–Mus)

* Kingdom: Animalia
* Phylum: Chordate
* Class: Mammalia
* Superorder: Euarchontoglires
* Order: Rodentia
* Family: Muridae

Melasmothrix
division|

| Melasmothrix|

* Sulawesian shrew rat (M. naso)

|

Tateomys
(Greater Sulawesian
shrew rats)|

* Long-tailed shrew rat (T. macrocercus)
* Tate's shrew rat (T. rhinogradoides)

Micromys
division|

| Chiropodomys
(Pencil-tailed
tree mice)|

* Palawan pencil-tailed tree mouse (C. calamianensis)
* Indomalayan pencil-tailed tree mouse (C. gliroides)
* Koopman's pencil-tailed tree mouse (C. karlkoopmani)
* Large pencil-tailed tree mouse (C. major)
* Gray-bellied pencil-tailed tree mouse (C. muroides)
* Small pencil-tailed tree mouse (C. pusillus)

|

Haeromys
(Pygmy tree mice)|

* Ranee mouse (H. margarettae)
* Minahassa ranee mouse (H. minahassae)
* Lesser ranee mouse (H. pusillus)

Hapalomys
(Marmoset rats)|

* Delacour's marmoset rat (H. delacouri)
* Marmoset rat (H. longicaudatus)

Micromys|

* Indochinese harvest mouse (M. erythrotis)
* Eurasian harvest mouse (M. minutus)

Vandeleuria
(Long-tailed
climbing mice)|

* Nilgiri long-tailed tree mouse (V. nilagirica)
* Nolthenius's long-tailed climbing mouse (V. nolthenii)
* Asiatic long-tailed climbing mouse (V. oleracea)

Vernaya|

* Red climbing mouse (V. fulva)

Millardia
division|

| Cremnomys|

* Cutch rat (C. cutchicus)
* Elvira rat (C. elvira)

|

Diomys|

* Crump's mouse (D. crumpi)

Madromys|

* Blanford's rat (M. blanfordi)

Millardia
(Asian
soft-furred rats)|

* Sand-colored soft-furred rat (M. gleadowi)
* Miss Ryley's soft-furred rat (M. kathleenae)
* Kondana soft-furred rat (M. kondana)
* Soft-furred rat (M. meltada)

Mus division|

| Muriculus|

* Ethiopian striped mouse (M. imberbis)

Mus
(Typical mice)|

* Subgenus Coelomys: Sumatran shrewlike mouse (M. crociduroides)

* Mayor's mouse (M. mayori)
* Gairdner's shrewmouse (M. pahari)
* Volcano mouse (M. vulcani)

* M. lepidoides group: M. lepidoides

* Subgenus Mus: Little Indian field mouse (M. booduga)
* Ryukyu mouse (M. caroli)
* Fawn-colored mouse (M. cervicolor)
* Cook's mouse (M. cookii)
* Cypriot mouse (M. cypriacus)
* Servant mouse (M. famulus)
* Sheath-tailed mouse (M. fragilicauda)
* Macedonian mouse (M. macedonicus)
* House mouse (M. musculus)
* Mus nitidulus
* Steppe mouse (M. spicilegus)
* Algerian mouse (M. spretus)
* Earth-colored mouse (M. terricolor)

* Subgenus Nannomys: Baoule's mouse (M. baoulei)
* Toad mouse (M. bufo)
* Callewaert's mouse (M. callewaerti)
* Gounda mouse (M. goundae)
* Hausa mouse (M. haussa)
* Desert pygmy mouse (M. indutus)
* Mahomet mouse (M. mahomet)
* Matthey's mouse (M. mattheyi)
* African pygmy mouse (M. minutoides)
* Temminck's mouse (M. musculoides)
* Neave's mouse (M. neavei)
* Free State pygmy mouse (M. orangiae)
* Oubangui mouse (M. oubanguii)
* Peters's mouse (M. setulosus)
* Setzer's pygmy mouse (M. setzeri)
* Thomas's pygmy mouse (M. sorella)
* Delicate mouse (M. tenellus)
* Gray-bellied pygmy mouse (M. triton)

* Subgenus Pyromys: Ceylon spiny mouse (M. fernandoni)
* Phillips's mouse (M. phillipsi)
* Flat-haired mouse (M. platythrix)
* Rock-loving mouse (M. saxicola)
* Shortridge's mouse (M. shortridgei)

See also

Aethomys–Chrotomys
Colomys–Golunda
Hadromys–Maxomys
Oenomys–Pithecheir
Pogonomys–Pseudomys
Rattus
Stenocephalomys–Xeromys
Otomys
Others

Taxon identifiers

Mus spicilegus|

* Wikidata: Q962616
* Wikispecies: Mus spicilegus
* ADW: Mus_spicilegus
* EoL: 1179254
* Fauna Europaea: 305688
* Fauna Europaea (new): 4202ce61-b1c9-4f3e-925d-3d46d43492f1
* GBIF: 2438805
* iNaturalist: 44702
* IRMNG: 10595131
* ITIS: 585406
* IUCN: 13984
* MDD: 1003384
* MSW: 13001579
* NCBI: 10103
* Observation.org: 85196
* Xeno-canto: Mus-spicilegus

Authority control databases: National |

* Israel

|

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template