NEW SPECIES OF CROCIDURA 



109 



efforts have been more stringent, shrews are frequently 

 difficult to trap, perhaps giving a false impression of their 

 rarity as faunal components. The discovery of this new 

 species of shrew, apparently present as a sufficiently large 

 population to form an important and regular part of the diet 

 of the resident owls, is therefore not so surprising as it might 

 first appear. Because of the nature of the specimens, even 

 less information than usual is known about the ecology of the 

 new species, although some implications may be drawn from 

 knowledge of the ecology and behaviour of the owls. The 

 barn owl roosting sites of both collecting localities are caves 

 in limestone outcrops in or near temple grounds, surrounded 

 by bamboo and deciduous trees. Individual roost sites at Wat 

 Tham Maho Lan are generally within 0.5 km of cultivated 

 maize fields, while those at Wat Tham Pha Phu are within 1 

 km of rice and cassava fields. The home range of barn owls in 

 the British Isles and Africa is generally 1-2.5 km, rarely up to 

 3 km (Bunn et al. 1982; Andrews, 1990). Because of this small 

 hunting range, it may be inferred that this habitat which 

 extends for some distance around the roosting site is also the 

 habitat for the shrews on which they prey. Barn owls are 

 nocturnal and crepuscular in their hunting behaviour, the 

 implication being that the shrews are active for at least a 

 proportion of the same activity period. 



Acknowledgements. We would like to thank the monks and nuns at 

 Wat Tham Pha Phu and Wat Tham Maho Lan for their generous 

 hospitality and their help in locating owl roosts. Mr Jarujin Nabhitab- 

 hata, Mr Preecha Leucha, Mr Surachit Wargsothorn and Ms Sunee 

 of the Ecological Research Department, Thailand Institute of Scien- 

 tific and Technological Research, Bangkok, provided much help and 

 advice, and kindly allowed access to their reference collection of 

 mammal specimens. We are very grateful also to the staff at Wildlife 

 Fund Thailand, in particular Mr Surapon Duangkhae, Mr Siripong 

 Thonongto and Mr Patric Corrigan, for their help and support. We 

 thank Dr Robert Mather (WWF) and his wife Noi, who provided 

 logistical support and Dr Mark Robinson who collaborated on the 

 survey, for his help and encouragement throughout the project. We 

 are indebted to Dr Robert Prys-Jones, Bird Group, The Natural 

 History Museum and Dr Rainer Hutterer, Zoologisches Fors- 

 chungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany for 

 their constructive reviews of the manuscript. 



References 



Allen, G.M. 1923. New Chinese insectivores. American Museum Novitates 



(100): 1-11. 

 Allen, G.M. & Coolidge, H.J. 1940. Mammal and bird collections of the Asiatic 



Primate Expedition: mammals. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative 



Zoology 87 (3): 131-166. 

 Andrews, P. 1990. Owls, caves and fossils. Natural History Museum Publica- 

 tions. London. 

 Blyth, E. 1855. Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for May 1855. 



Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 24 (4): 354-364. 

 Bonhote, J.L. 1903. Report on the mammals. Fasciculi Malayenses, Zoology 1: 



1-44. pi. l^t. 

 Bunn, D.S., Warburton, A.B. & Wilson, R.D.S. 1982. The barn owl. T. & 



A.D. Poyser, Calton. 



Butler, P.M. & Greenwood, M. 1979. Soricidae (Mammalia) from the early 



Pleistocene of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Zoological Journal of the Linnean 



Society 67: 329-379. 

 Corbet, G.B. & Hill, J.E. 1992. The mammals of the Indomalayan region. 



Natural History Museum Publications and Oxford University Press, Oxford. 

 Davison, G.W.H. 1984. New records of peninsular Malayan and Thai shrews. 



Malayan Nature Journal 36 (4): 211-215. 

 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, E. 1810. Sur les phyllostomes et les megadcrmes. 



Annates du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. 15: 157-198. 

 Glue, D.E. 1967. Prey taken by the barn owl in England and Wales. Bird Study 



14 (3): 169-183. 

 Heaney, L.R. & Timm, R.M. 1983. Systematics and distribution of shrews of 



the genus Crocidura (Mammalia: Insectivora) in Vietnam. Proceedings of the 



Biological Society of Washington 96 (1): 1 15-120. 

 Hill, J.E. 1960. The Robinson collection of Malaysian mammals. Bulletin of the 



Raffles Museum, Singapore (29): 1-112. 

 Hutterer, R., 1993. Order Insectivora.: 69-130. In D. E. Wilson & D. M. 



Reeder (Editors) Mammal species of the world. Smithsonian Institution 



Press, Washington and London. 

 Jenkins, P.D. 1976. Variation in Eurasian shrews of the genus Crocidura 



(Insectivora: Soricidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), 



Zoology 30 (7): 271-309. 



1982. A discussion of Malayan and Indonesian shrews of the genus 



Crocidura (Insectivora: Soricidae). Zoologische Mededelingen 56 (21): 

 267-279. 



KIoss, C.B. 1917. On five new mammals from Siam. Journal of the Natural 

 History Society of Siam 2: 282-287. 



1919. On mammals collected in Siam. Journal of the Natural History 



Society of Siam 3 (4): 333-407. 



Lekagul, B. & McNeely, J. A. 1977. Mammals of Thailand. Kurusapha Ladprao 



Press, Bangkok. 

 Medway, Lord 1965. Mammals of Borneo. Field keys and an annotated 



checklist. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 36 (3): 



1-193. 



1977. Mammals of Borneo. Field keys and an annotated checklist. 



Monographs of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (7): 1-172. 



Meester, J. 1963. A systematic revision of the shrew genus Crocidura in 



Southern Africa. Transvaal Museum Memoir (13): 1-127. 

 Milne-Edwards, A. 1872. Recherches pour servir a Thistoire naturelle des 



Mammiferes. Paris. 

 Mills, J.R.E. 1966. The functional occlusion of the teeth of Insectivora. Journal 



of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 46 (308): 1-25. 

 Peters, W. 1870. Ober neue Arten von Spitzmausen des Konigl. zoologischen 



Museums aus Ceylon, Malacca, Borneo, China, Luzon und Ostafrika. 



Monatsberichte der Koniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu 



Berlin.: 584-596. 

 Robinson, H.C. & KIoss, C.B. 1914. On new mammals mainly from Bandon 



and the adjacent islands, east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Annals and 



Magazine of Natural History (8) 13: 223-234. 

 & 1922. New mammals from French Indo-China and Siam. Annals 



and Magazine of Natural History (9) 9: 87-99. 

 & 1923. Mammals and birds from the hills of Nakon Sri Tamarat. 



peninsular Siam. Journal of the Federal Malay States Museums. 11: 58-63. 

 Robinson, M.F. & Smith, A.L. (in prep.) Small mammals from Northeast 



Thailand. 

 Ruedi, M., Maddalena, T., Yong, H.- S. & Vogel, P. 1990. The Crocidura 



fuliginosa species complex (Mammalia: Insectivora) in peninsular Malaysia: 



biological, karyological and genetical evidence. Biochemical Systematics and 



Ecology. 18 (7/8): 573-581. 

 (in press) Taxonomic revision of Crocidura shrews from the Sunda Shelf 



and Sulawesi with description of two new species (Mammalia: Soricidae). 



Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 

 Savi, P. 1822. Osservazioni sopra il mustietto o mustiolo, nuova specie di topo 



ragno Toscano Sorex etruscus. Nuovo Giornale dei Letterati, Pisa. 1: 60-71. 

 Scopoli, J. A. 1769. Annus 1 [-5] Historico Naturalis. Lipsiae. 

 Smith, A.L. & Robinson, M.F. (in prep.) Observations on the diet of the barn 



owl, Tyto alba, in Northeast Thailand. 

 Swindler, D.R. 1976. Dentition of living primates . Academic Press, London. 

 Thomas, [M.R.] O. 1912. New species of Crocidura and Petaurista from 



Yunnan. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. (8) 9: 686-688. 



