著者

川田 伸一郎

出版者

日本動物分類学会

雑誌

タクサ : 日本動物分類学会誌 (ISSN:13422367)

巻号頁・発行日

no.20, pp.41-50, 2006-02-20

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The taxonomy of Japanese moles, genus Mogera, has been confused since the early 1990s, because of the poorly defined type locality of M. wogura and morphological variability within the genus. Genetic research in recent decades has clarified the taxonomic problems of Japanese moles. This paper uses Japanese moles to discuss the importance of karyological study in mammal species recognition. Chromosomal rearrangements are considered likely to have an important role in species diversification of Japanese moles, resulting from postmating isolation mechanisms induced by abnormal meiosis in heterozygotic hybrids. It is well known that recombination leads to gametes with an unbalanced complement of chromosomal segments in inversion or reciprocal translocation heterozygotes. In the case of Japanese moles, four species of Japanese moles, M. etigo, M. imaizumii, M. tokudae and M. wogura, each have a distinct karyotype and/or morphological traits, and are thus considered to be full species endemic to Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.