Apodemus

Apodemus is a genus of Muridae (true mice and rats). The name is unrelated to that of the Mus genus, instead being derived from the Greek ἀπό-δημος (literally away from home).

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

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 sensu stricto

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

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

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

Incertae sedis

• Apodemus avicennicus Darvish, Javidkar & Siahsarvie, 2006

Prehistoric species described from fossil remains include:

• A. gorafensis (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Italy)[2]
• A. dominans (Kolzoi 1959)

References

1. Steppan et al. (2005)
2. 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.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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