Apodemus

Apodemus Temporal range: Late Miocene - recent
Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Tribe:	Apodemini
Genus:	Apodemus Kaup, 1829
Type species
Mus agrarius
Species
About 20, see text

Apodemus is a genus of murid (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). Apodemus has three species Apodemus Alpicola, Apodemus Flavicollis, and Apodemus Sylvaticus. ^[1]To understand the phylogenetic relationships of these organisms can be crucial information in the assist of more findings on adaptation and genetic evolution, and possibly evolution for Apodemus species as well.

Taxonomy

Related to the Ryūkyū spiny rats (Tokudaia) and the prehistoric Rhagamys – and far more distantly to Mus and Malacomys^[2] – it includes these species:

Apodemus sensu stricto

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

Alsomys

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

Sylvaemus

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

Karstomys

• Western broad-toothed field mouse, A. epimelas
• Eastern broad-toothed field mouse, A. mystacinus
• Kashmir field mouse, A. rusiges

Incertae sedis

Further information: Incertae sedis

• Apodemus avicennicus Darvish, Javidkar & Siahsarvie, 2006

Prehistoric species described from fossil remains include:

• A. gorafensis (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Italy)^[3]
• A. dominans (Kolzoi 1959)

References

1. Wu, D; Zhou, L; Xue, J; Xia, Q; Meng, L (2022). "Characterization of Two New Apodemus Mitogenomes (Rodentia: Muridae) and Mitochondrial Phylogeny of Muridae". Diversity. 14 (12): 1089. doi:10.3390/d14121089.
2. Steppan et al. (2005)
3. Alexandra van der Geer; George Lyras; John de Vos; Michael Dermitzakis (2011). Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444391282.

Further reading

• 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. p. 1260. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
• 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
• 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