Authority citation

Cheke, A.S. and Hume, J.P. 2018-02-21. The Réunion Fody and Sonnerat's Shrew and the validity of scientifically naming animals described without physical types. Zootaxa 4382(3):592-600.

Authority publication link

Original name as described

Diplomesodon sonnerati

Type material

Specimen illustrated by Sonnerat

Type kind

holotype

Type locality

"Vicinity of Pondicherry/Puducherry, southern India."

Biogeographic realm

Indomalaya

Country distribution

India

Taxonomy notes

recently described based on drawings of a shrew similar to Diplomesodon pulchellus, but was treated by most authorities as a nomen dubium until 2025, when an image was taken of a shrew matching the original description and illustration of the taxon; the shrew itself resembles a partially leucistic Suncus murinus, but the specimen was not collected and genetic and more comprehensive morphological data is needed to confirm the taxonomic affinities of this taxon, so the species is tentatively recognized here; the original description of the name in 2011 did not meet the ICZN Code standards (no type locality was designated in the text) to make the name available, but an adequate description was later published in 2018

Taxonomy notes citation

Cheke, A.S. 2011. Sonnerat's shrew – evidence for a new and possibly extinct species in an early 19th century manuscript (Mammalia: Soricidae). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 108(2):95-97. a#8028 · Cheke, A.S. and Hume, J.P. 2018. The Réunion Fody and Sonnerat's Shrew and the validity of scientifically naming animals described without physical types. Zootaxa 4382(3):592-600. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4382.3.10 · Nizamudheen, M., Arockianathan, S., Sirajudeen, M.S., Anbazhagan, A. and Rajaboopathi, B.K. 2025. Rediscovery of an 'extinct' endemic mammal Sonnerat's Shrew (Diplomesodon sonnerati Cheke, 2012) in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India. Iranian Journal of Animal Biosystematics 21(2):171-174. a#72468

IUCN Red List status

Not Evaluated

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