Differentiation of Subspecies of Chinese White-Bellied Rat Descriptions of Two New Subspecies

This paper reports results of our taxonomic study on subspecies of Chinese white-bellied rat (Niviventer confucianus) collected in southwestern China.The difference of pelage coloration and coefficient of difference (C.D.) on 17 selected cranial and dental variables among samples from this region were analyzed to assess the difference between the sample and the nominate subspecies N.c.confucianus.92 individuals with complete skulls from this region were then submitted to multivariate analyses.The results showed that the samples from Yajiang,western Sichuan and Deqin,northwestern Yunnan,which have once been included in N.c.confucianus,were distinguished from N.c.confucianus and should be respectively considered as two new subspecies.We propose to name them and to describe them respectively as.