Historical examination of the Japanese field vole, <i>Arvicola hatanedzumi</i>, described by Professor Chujirou Sasaki, currently a junior synonym of <i>Microtus</i> (=<i>Alexandromys</i>) <i>montebelli</i> (Milne-Edwards, 1872)

<p>In 1872, Alphonse Milne-Edwards, a mammologist of National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Paris, described a new species of Arvicola montebelli, the Japanese field vole, “hatenezumi” in Japanese. Without referring to the original description by Milne-Edwards (1872), Professor Chujirou Sasaki, an entomologist at Tokyo Imperial University, named the vole Arvicola hatanedzumi in 1904 (currently a junior synonym of Microtus (=Alexandromys) montebelli). A detailed examination of the literature from around 1900 is as follows: First, because Sasaki (1904) did not provide a precise locality, the collection locality of Arvicola hatanedzumi was presumed to be Tamamura, Yuuki-gun, Ibaraki Prefecture, based on the occurrence of the vole’s plague in Tamamura (Onuki 1900). Second, Onuki (1900) and Sasaki (1904) would have consulted Ludwig (1883) and Bos (1891) for Arvicolidae; Onuki (1901) allocated the vole to the genus Arvicola without references, and Sasaki (1904) cited the literature incorrectly and insufficiently. Third, because the vole in Sasaki (1901) was affirmed as a new species with the description of the body, the name “Arvicola hatanedzumi” given by Sasaki (1901) was assigned as a valid species name by articles 11 and 12 (ICZN 2000). Fourth, Miyajima (1908) first introduced M. montebelli (Milne-Edwards, 1872) in Japan through Thomas (1906), and Aoki (1913, 1915) stabilized A. hatanedzumi as a junior synonym of M. montebelli.</p>