TaxonomyTaxonomy

Taxonomy

The taxonomic status of the Christmas Island Shrew is unclear.

It was originally regarded as “a local variety” of the southeast Asian White-toothed Shrew Crocidura fuliginosa (Dobson 1888 cited in Thomas 1888), which is widespread in southeast Asia, including Indonesia (Jenkins 1982, Corbet & Hill 1992). This was because the type specimen collected by Dobson (1888) (cited in Andrews 1900) had a tail of 80mm, 10mm longer than the head and body length of 70mm, and thickly covered with fine hairs. However, in the ten specimens collected by Andrews (1900) the tail (range: 63–75mm) was typically shorter (in one individual by 10mm) than the head and body length (range: 65–82 mm) and in only two specimens was it slightly longer. Based on the morphological characteristics, Jenkins (1976) described it as a subspecies of the Gray or Long-tailed Shrew C. attenuata. The Gray Shrew occurs from the Himalayas southwards and eastwards through Thailand, Burma and China to Malaysia and Indonesia (Jenkins 1982, Corbet & Hill 1992). Corbet & Hill (1992) have since questioned the validity of the Christmas Island Shrew being considered conspecific with C. attenuata based on morphological characteristics.