On Voles from Yunnan. 1^5 



XII. — On the Voles collected by Mr. G. Forrest in Yunnan; 

 with Remarks upon the Genera Eotlieuoinys and Neodou 

 and upon their Allies. By Martin A. C. Hinton. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



In the 'Annals' for October (p. Z9\, supra), Mr. Old field 

 Thomas gave a general account of the fine collection of 

 mammals from the mountains of Western Yunnan made by- 

 Mr. G. Forrest, and so generously presented to the British 

 Museum by Colonel Stephenson K. Clarke, C.B., D.S.O. 

 Aware of tiie interest I have taken in Microtinse for many 

 years, Mr. Thomas very kindly asked me to work out the 

 voles, of which tliere are about one hundred specimens in 

 Mr. Forrest's collection. This material forms an important 

 addition to our knowledge of the voles of this region. It 

 comprises six forms, of which no few'er than five are new, 

 belonging to four genera. 



Genus Eothenomys. 



Eothenomys was established by Miller (N. Amer. Fauna, 

 No. 12, p. 45, 1896) as a subgenus of Microtus for the recep- 

 tion of " Arvicola " melanogaster, Mihie-Edw. This species^ 

 described originally from Moupin, Western Sze-chwan, 

 remained for many years the only known representative of 

 the genus. In 1911, Thomas described his M. {E.) melano- 

 gaster columns from Western Fokien ; and since then many 

 additional forms have been discovered, so that, including 

 •those described in this paper as new, twelve or thirteen 

 members of the group have now to be recognized. 



Distinguished by a peculiar combination of cranial, 

 dental, and external characters, Eothenomys is clearly 

 entitled to full generic rank in any classificatory scheme in 

 which, for example^ Pitymys and Ai'vicola are treated as 

 genera distinct from each other and from Microtus proper. 

 Two other Far-Eastern groups, Anteliomys, Miller, and Cary- 

 omi/s, Thomas, hitherto treated as subgenera of Microtus, 

 are undoubtedly so closely related to Eothenomys that it 

 is difficult to decide whether to treat them as subgenera of 

 the latter or as distinct genera. The external characters 

 are alike in all three. In skull, Eothenomys and Caryomys 

 closely resemble each other, but the cheek-teeth of the 

 latter are distinctly more highly specialized tlian are those of 

 the former. Anteliomys has a dentition combining some of 



Ann. d) Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 9. Vol. xi. 10 



