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Talpa martinorum
Kryštufek, Nedyalkov, Astrin & Hutterer, 2018
Bonn zoological Bulletin. 67(1)
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Abstract
We utilized 1084 bp sequences of the cytochrome b gene to assess the taxonomic status of small blind moles from eastern Thrace in Bulgaria and European Turkey. So far, these moles were classified either as Talpa caeca or as T. levantis. Our study showed them to be genetically closer to T. europaea, T. aquitania, and T. occidentalis, albeit not being part of any of these species. We describe them as a new species, Talpa martinorum. n. sp. The new species differs from T. europaea, another mole occupying Thrace, by having a sealed palpebral fissure and a 1st upper molar with no parastyle, and by being smaller. The contemporary distribution range of T. martinorum n. sp. is small and restricted to the Black Sea coast between Burgas (Bulgaria) and Istanbul (Turkey). The species name is an eponym to the married couple Vladimir and Evgeniya Martino, two early students of Balkan mammals.
Key words. Balkans, cytochrome b, cryptic species, species delimitation, Talpa martinorum n. sp. N
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| Fig. 3. Head (a) in lateral view, tip of nose (b) in dorsal (left) and ventral (right) views, and ventral side of tail in Talpa martinorum n. sp. Note that the palpebral fissure is covered by transparent skin (a). Museum vouchers PMS 25631 (a), ZFMK 2017.1152 (b) and ZFMK 2017.1151 (c). Not to scale. |
Talpa martinorum n. sp.
Diagnosis. A member of the subgenus Talpa. Medium-sized species with palpebral fissure sealed by a transparent skin (Fig. 3a). First upper molar (M1 ) lacks parastyle (Fig. 6a); the mesostyle is indistinctly bifurcate (Fig. 6a). Pairwise interspecific p-distances (> 9%) are within the range observed between other species of moles (e.g., within Talpa, interspecific distances average ca. 12%).
Etymology. Talpa martinorum n. sp. is an eponym to Vladimir Emmanuilovich Martino (Владимир Эммануилович Мартино, 1888–1961) and Evgeniya Veniaminovna Martino (Евгения Вениаминовнa Мартино, 1894–1979) née Stepanova (Степановa), ethnic Russians who in 1920 escaped the October Revolution by emigrating to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia since 1929). In politically insecure and frequently violent Eastern Europe of the 20th century, the Martinos were refugees for more than three decades. In 1949 they moved to Bulgaria and in 1955 returned to Russia (at that time still Soviet Union). Inspired by G. S. Miller’s (1912) “Catalogue of the Mammals of Western Europe” they initiated mammal research in south-eastern Europe and named, among others, two Balkan endemics: Dinaromys bogdanovi (V. Martino & E. Martino, 1922) (Martino & Martino 1922: 413) and Talpa stankovici V. Martino & E. Martino, 1931 (Martino & Martino 1931: 53) (Fig. 8). While Vladimir had a degree in Biology from the University in Novorossiysk (1913), Evgeniya had no formal academic education. Despite this, she attained competency in mammalogy and successfully collaborated with her spouse, both in the field and cabinet. Although they published several joint papers (as V. and E. Martino), the contribution by Evgeniya is mainly ignored and she is nearly anonymous today (cf. Beolens et al. 2009). At least nine subspecific names for mammals with the epithet martinoi (see Appendix 3) were proposed by mammalogists between 1935 and 1971, and all are eponyms to Vladimir Martino. With the name martinorum n. sp. we stress the equal share by Evgeniya in the tandem “V. et E. Martino” and correct the injustice done to her contribution in the past decades. Along with Dorothea Bate (1878–1951) and Gabriele Neuhäuser (1911–1998) Evgeniya was one of the early women who studied the taxonomy of Palaearctic mammals already between the two great wars. In addition to their publications, a renowned legacy of Vladimir and Evgeniya Martino is their meticulously prepared and carefully labelled mammal collection, deposited primarily in the Natural History Museum London and the Zoological Institute and Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. For biographies of Vladimir Martino, see Mezentsev (1961), Paspalev (1962), Pusanov (1962), Zimmermann (1962), Gus’kov (1965), Taranenko (1999), and Boreiko (2001).
Boris Kryštufek, Nedko Nedyalkov, Jonas J. Astrin and Rainer Hutterer. 2018. News from the Balkan refugium: Thrace has An Endemic Mole Species
(Mammalia: Talpidae).
Bonn zoological Bulletin. 67(1); 41–57.
