Chromosomal polymorphism of mandarin vole, Microtus mandarinus (Rodentia)

摘要

The small-sized subterranean rodent, mandarin vole, Microtus mandarinus (Milne-Edwards, 1871) is one of the harmful mice to farming, forestry and horticulture when its populations are high. It may cause damage to fruit orchards, especially during winter, by eating the bark from the roots and lower trunks of trees (Wang and Xu 1992).The mandarin vole is widely distributed in north-central Mongolia and adjacent part of Siberia south of Lake Baikal, China and Korea (Nowak and Paradiso 1983). In China, it is common in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Hebei, Anhui, North Jiangsu and Northeast China (Honacki et al. 1982; Wang and Xu 1992). Zhu et al. (1993) studied cytogenetically the species from Lingbao County, Henan Province, China. M. mandarinus, was first recorded in Wendeng, Shandong Province of China in 1995. After cytogenetic investigation of specimens from Shandong population, we found variations in diploid number and chromosome polymorphism distinct from those of the Henan population.