Biosystematics Study of Steppe Field Mouse Apodemus Witherbyi (Rodentia: Muridae) From North-West Iran

Apodemus witherbyi is a species with wide distribution and geographic variation in the iranian plateau. this species exists in syntopic, sympatric or parapatric with other four reported sylvaemus species from iran, i.e. a. hyrcanicus, a. uralensis, a. flavicolis and a. avicennicus. in this study 33 specimens from different localities in nw iran were examined to study the taxonomic status and the intra-specific variation of the populations. the study was carried out based on the rflp analysis of cytochrome b (mtdna), as well as the morphological and morphometric analyses external, cranial and dental characters. the results reveal that all the specimens studied belong to a same species, a. witherbyi.variation range of the morphometric characters and the frequency of the morphological traits are provided.