Insights into the molecular systematics of montane voles of the Western Himalayan Mountains

Kashmir voles ( Hyperacrius ) are poorly studied fossorial arvicolines of the southern Himalayan slopes, with two species recognized. We sequenced Cytb from voles collected in northern Pakistan and combined these data with existing GenBank sequences, yielding 194 tips spanning nearly all arvicoline genera. We analyzed five data sets with maximum likelihood and compared external measurements among species using principal component and linear discriminant analyses.

We recovered five well-supported clades of Hyperacrius separated by ∼12–14% p-distance, which we treat as distinct species. We recognize clade 1 as H. wynnei , and populations referred to H. w. traubi are genetically indistinguishable from H. w. wynnei . We recognize H. zygomaticus , new rank (clade 2), and tentatively allocate clade 5 to H. brachelix . Clades 3 and 4 likely represent undescribed species. Morphometric analyses of external measurements clearly distinguish H. wynnei but not clades 3 and 4 (overall classification accuracy 70.3%).

Phylogenetic analyses including nuclear genes placed Hyperacrius as sister to a clade containing Microtini, Arvicola , Lagurini, Dinaromys , and Ellobiusini, whereas mitochondrial analyses weakly allied it with Ellobiusini. Its traditional placement in Clethrionomyini is thus unsupported, although its exact position remains unresolved. Alticola is nonmonophyletic, with A. macrotis sequences nested within Clethrionomys , likely reflecting mitochondrial capture.