Piebald shrew

Piebald shrew[1]
Piebald shrew in Moscow Zoo
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 2.3)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Eulipotyphla
Family:	Soricidae
Subfamily:	Crocidurinae
Genus:	Diplomesodon Brandt, 1852
Species:	D. pulchellum
Binomial name
Diplomesodon pulchellum (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Piebald shrew range

The piebald shrew (Diplomesodon pulchellum) is a shrew found in the Turan Lowland east of the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It grows to 2–2³⁄₄ inches in length, and usually hunts for insects and lizards at night. It is the only extant member of the genus Diplomesodon. In 2011, A. Cheke described a new and possibly extinct species based on a 19th-century manuscript: Diplomesodon sonnerati (Sonnerat's shrew).^[3]

References

1. Hutterer, R. (2005). Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 255–256. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
2. Insectivore Specialist Group (1996). Diplomesodon pulchellum. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
3. Cheke, A. (2011). "Sonnerat's shrew - evidence for a new and possibly extinct species in an early 19th century manuscript (Mammalia: Soricidae)." (PDF). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 108 (2): 95–97.

• Animal, Smithsonian Institution, 2005.