| Ryukyu shrew | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Eulipotyphla |
| Family: | Soricidae |
| Genus: | Crocidura |
| Species: |
C. orii
|
| Binomial name | |
| Crocidura orii | |
| |
| Ryukyu Shrew range | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Crocidura dsinezumi orii[2] (protonym) | |
The Ryukyu shrew (Crocidura orii), also known as Orii's shrew,[1] is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to the Amami IslandsofJapan. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Orii's shrew was first described, as a subspecies of the Dsinezumi shrew (Crocidura dsinezumi orii), by Kuroda Nagamichi in 1924; he named it after his collector, Orii Hyōjirō, who had provided the skin and skull of a single male from Amami Ōshima.[2]: 3 This type specimen, damaged during the initial trapping,[2]: 3 was destroyed by fire in 1945.[4]: 22 In their 1951 checklist, Ellerman and Morrison-Scott listed the shrew instead as a subspecies of the Greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula orii).[3]: 81 In 1961, after the recovery of a second individual from the stomach of a hime habu or Ryukyu Island pit viper (Ovophis okinavensis), Imaizumi Yoshinori elevated the shrew to species rank, based on morphological comparison with other species of Crocidura.[4] In 1998, after the study of five further specimens from Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima, Motokawa Masaharu [ja] confirmed this taxonomic treatment.[5]
| Crocidura orii |
|
|---|---|
