Mus booduga

555.

Little Indian Field Mouse

Mus booduga

French: Souris indienne / German: Kleine Indien-Maus / Spanish: Raton de India pequeno

Taxonomy. Leggada booduga Gray, 1837,

South Mahratta, India.

Belongs to subgenus Mus. Despite differ ent revisions, the content and precise distribution of this species is still debated. A recent molecular analysis by T. Shimada and colleagues in 2010 defined a “ M. booduga clade”, comprising M. booduga, M. fragilicauda, M. nitidulus, and M. terricolor, but not M. lepidoides, which was previ- ously included in M. booduga. Monotypic.

Distribution. E Pakistan, India, S Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 56-63 mm, tail 55-75 mm, ear 11-13 mm, hindfoot 14-16 mm; weight 10-15 g. The Little Indian Field Mouse is one of the smallest mice. Upperparts are glossy light brown fading to grayish white or white on the ventral surface. Across the chest there is often a light brown band or splotch. Ears are large and rounded. Muzzle is quite pointed. Tail is as long as the head-body length and is bicolored, dark above and paler below. Upper incisors curve backwards. Karyotype is 2n = 40. Habitat. Cropland or patches of tropical thorn scrub on the edge of cultivated fields. Sometimes trapped in gardens but never inside houses. Elevational range from sea level up to 4000 m. Food and Feeding. Diet is not well known but thought to be partly vegetarian (vegetables, seeds, sweet potatoes, melons,fruits, tubers) accompanied by insects in unknown proportions. Rice seems to be the preferred food item. Stomach-content analysis revealed that the diet was composed of green plant matter (52%), cultivated grains (13%) and animal remains (4%); the rest of the contents included stems, leaves, roots, and algal matter. Breeding. Reproduction seems to occur through the whole year. Litter size is 4-8. Activity patterns. Little Indian Field Mice are nocturnal and terrestrial. They shelter in burrows during the day. Movements, Home range and Social organization. Burrows reach 30-41 cm in depth, with the nest situated at the end of the burrow. Nests chambers measured 13-14 cm in diameter and tunnels 2:5 cm wide. The Little Indian Field Mouse digs in the surface of the soil in fields. The species is not markedly gregarious. Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. In some parts of its range, thespecies is considered a pest. Bibliography. Marshall (1977a), Molur et al. (2005), Rao (1980), Rao & Balasubramanyam (1992), Roberts (1977), Shimada et al. (2010), Singh et al. (2009), Suzuki & Aplin (2012), Suzuki, Shimada et al. (2004).