The correct specific name for the House Mouse that we have in Britain is Mus
domesticus not Mus musculus. Originally the introduced House Mouse in Western
Europe (including Britain) was regarded as one variable species Mus musculus.
Several species have now been recognised, including M. spretis (Iberia), M.
domesticus (rest of western Europe) and M. musculus (eastern Europe) which meet
but scarcely interbreed along a line from Denmark to the Dalmatian coast. All
of the lab mice etc are from M. domesticus. Assuming that the introduced
population present in Australia will most likely to have originated from the
UK, rather than mainland Europe, then your species should now be called M.
domesticus.
Clive Herbert
Director
Amphibian, Reptile & Mammal Conservation Ltd
67A Ridgeway Avenue
East Barnet
Hertfordshire
England
EN4 8TL
> From:
> To:
> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:30:32 +1000
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Off topic - Mouse ID
>
> Thanks to all the people who responded to my request - nearly universally
> the mouse was identified as a plain old house mouse, Mus Musculus.
>
> Bill
>
> ===============================
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to:
>
> http://birding-aus.org
> ===============================
==============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
=============================
|
