Apodemus

Old World field mice Temporal range: Late Miocene - recent
Wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Euarchontoglires
Order:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Myomorpha
Superfamily:	Muroidea
Family:	Muridae
Subfamily:	Murinae
Tribe:	Apodemurini
Genus:	Apodemus Kaup, 1829
Species
About 20, see text

Apodemus is the genus of Muridae (true mice and rats) which contains the Eurasian field mice.

Taxonomy

Related to the Ryūkyū spiny rats (Tokudaia) and the prehistoric Rhagamys – and far more distantly to Mus and Malacomys^[1] – it includes these species:

Apodemus s. str.

• Striped field mouse, Apodemus agrarius
• Chevrier's field mouse, Apodemus chevrieri
• Small Japanese field mouse, Apodemus argenteus

Alsomys

• South China field mouse, Apodemus draco
• Himalayan field mouse, Apodemus gurkha
• Sichuan field mouse, Apodemus latronum
• Korean field mouse, Apodemus peninsulae
• Taiwan field mouse, Apodemus semotus
• Large Japanese field mouse, Apodemus speciosus

Sylvaemus

• Alpine field mouse, Apodemus alpicola
• Yellow-necked mouse, Apodemus flavicollis – includes A. arianus
• Caucasus field mouse, Apodemus hyrcanicus
• Ward's field mouse, Apodemus pallipes
• Black Sea field mouse, Apodemus ponticus
• Wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus
• Ural field mouse, Apodemus uralensis
  • Pygmy field mouse, Apodemus uralensis microps
  • Cimrman Ural field mouse, Apodemus uralensis cimrmani
• Steppe field mouse, Apodemus witherbyi

Karstomys

• Broad-toothed field mouse, Apodemus mystacinus
  • Western broad-toothed field mouse, Apodemus (mystacinus) epimelas
• Kashmir field mouse, Apodemus rusiges

Prehistoric species described from fossil remains include:

• Apodemus gorafensis (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Italy)
• Apodemus dominans (Kolzoi 1959)

References

Further reading

• Musser, G.G. & Carleton, M.D. (2005): Superfamily Muroidea. In: D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds: Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference: 894–1531. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• 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. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.04.016 PDF fulltext