Crocidura suaveolens Pallas, 1811 is recorded definitely for the first time from the Maltese Islands. Previous records of this species are reviewed and are shown to refer to other species or else to be unconfirmed. Besides C. suaveolens, two other shrews inhabit the Maltese Islands. Sunclts e"ruscus (Savi) is distributed in both Malta and Gozo while both C. suaveolens Pallas and C. russula (Hermann) appear to be restricted to the island of Gozo. The latter species has not, however, been recorded in this study.peer-reviewe

Schembri, Patrick J.

Schembri, Stephen P.

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Centro Med. Nat, Vol 1. No, I, On the occurrence of Crocidura Suaveolens Pallas (Mammalia, Insecti-v~ra) in the Maltese Islands with notes on other Maltese shrews. Patrick J. Schembri & Stephen P. Schembri 72, Brared Str., B'Kara, Malta ABSTRACT Crocidura suaveolens Pallas, 1811 is recorded definitely for the first time from the Maltese Islands. Previous records of this species are reviewed and are shown to refer to other species or else to be unconfirmed. Besides C. suaveolens, two other shrews inhabit the Maltese Islands. Sunclts e"ruscus (Savi) is distributed in both Malta and Gozo while both C. suaveolens Pallas and C. russula (Hermann) appear to be restricted to the island of Gozo. The latter species has not, however, been recorded in this study. INTRODUCTION The first mention of the occurrence of Crocidura suaveolens in the ]Vlaltese islands was that of Gulia (1913) who reported that a male of this species was captured by G. Despott at Tal-BroIli, Ghaxaq (Malta). As pointed out by Lan-franco (1969), GuIia did .not state whethe, be was referring to C. suaveo/ens Pallas or to C. suaveolens Blasius [= Suncus etruscus (Savi)]. Lanfranco (1969) is of the opinion that Gulia was referring to C. suaveolens Blasius since all the specimens of shrews examined by Lanfranco turned out to be S. etruscus (Savi). Lanfranco (1969) further states that in his opinion "It appears that there are no other shrews on our islands". Bate (19:35) refers to Gulia's record as "Crocidura sllaveolens (= Pachyura etrusca Savi),' indicating that she too believed that Gulia was referring to Suncus estrucus (Savi). Sultana (1971) rcported that he had extracted the remains of two specimens of C. suaveolens from pellets of the Barn Owl Tyto alba collected at Xaghra, Gozo. However, this author does not give the authority's name, so, as in the case of GuI1a's record, it cannot be decided whether the specimens were actually C. suaveolens Pallas or S. etruscus (Savi). Sultana's records are discussed further below. The present record of C. suaveolens Pallas is thus the first unequivocal record of the occurrence of this species in the Maltese islands. Crocidura suaveolens Pallas, 1811 I male; Mgarr, Gozo 22jV/1973 leg. J.L. Schembri; det. P.D. Jenkins. The specimen was found dead, but not decomposed, in a roadside ditch. The hairs on the superior part of the body are coloured in various shades of brown while those on the inferior part of the body are coloured grey, though occasional 18 yellowish-brown hairs also occur. There is a more or less distinct transition in the coloration of the superior and inferior parts of the body. The legs are of a yellowish-white colour while the tail is brownish-white. The dentition of the upper jaw is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1 Dentition of the upper jaw of C. suaveolens Pallas; Specimen from Mgarr, Gozo. Scale represents 2 mm. The specimen has the dimensions given below. Body Length of head and body Length of tail Length of posterior leg Skull Condylobasal length Maximum breadth Maximum height of braincase Superior dental file length 50.3 n1n1 27.5 mm 11.6 mm 18.1 mm 8.2 mm 5.0 mm 7.9 mm This specimen of C. suaveolens cannot be referred to any of the forms or races attributed to this species without further studies on a larger number of individuals, and in any case, these races are of uncertain status (Toschi & Lanza, 1959). DISCUSSION Besides S. etruscus (Savi) and the present record of C. suaveolens Pallas, other species of shrew have been recorded from the Maltese islands. Roberts (1954) mentions Sorex araneus (L.) from Malta, however, as correctly stated by Lanfranco (1969), the range of this species does not even include Sicily. Despott (in Vaufrey, 1929) records S. etruSClts and Crocidura sp. from the Maltese islands. Two skulls, one from Malta and one from Gozo, examined by Bate (1935) turned out to belong to S. etruscus (Savi) and C. russula (Hermann) respectively. Parti-cularly interesting is Sultana's record of C. suaveoJens and C.russula from pellets of Tyto alba from Gozo (Sultana, 1971). As already mentioned, this author does not give the authority's name and. in an effort to confirm these records. we have 19 Centro Med. Nat. Vol 1. No. I, examined the correspondence between J. Sultana and T.B. Si1cocks, to whom the mammalian remains had been sent for identification. It transpired that Mr. Silcocks had in turn sent the remains of the shrews to Dr. G.B. Corbet of the British Museum (Natural History) for identification. There is, however, no trace of' any correspondence between T.B. Silcocks and Dr. G.B. Corbet relating- to Maltese material at the British Museum (P .D. Jenkins, personal communication). On the other hand, T.B. Si1cocks in personal communication to one of us (S.P .S.) asserts that the Maltese material sent to him by J. Sultana was definitely identi-fied as C. russula (Hermann) and C. suaveolens Pallas by Dr. G.B. Corbet. In view of our own record of C. suaveolens and Bate's record of C. russula (Bate, 1933) we are of the opinion that Sultana's records are valid. Unfortunately, however, the skulls on which these records are based are lost. Two species of shrew have definitely been confirmed to inhabit the Maltese islands, while a third species, C. russula (Hermann) almost certainly also occurs. Of these species, two (C. suaveolens Pallas and C. russula (Hermann)) have only been recorded from Gozo, while the other (S. etruscus (Savi)) occurs in both Malta and Gozo. Finally, it is interesting to note that fossils of Crocidura cf. kucodon (Bate, 1925) and C. russula (Storch, 1970) have been found in Ghar Dalam cave, Malta, while fossil C. cf. russula (Bate, 1935) have been found in pleistocene deposits of Tal-Cnien, Malta. ACKNO\rVLEDGEMENTS We are very grateful to Dr. P.D. Jenkins of the British Museum (Natural History) for identifying the shrew, for examining correspondence in the files of the British Museum on our behalf and for her helpful comments. \Ve also wish to thank Mr. A. Valletta for arranging to have the shrew identified, Mr. J. Sultana for allowing us to examine the correspondence between himself and Mr. Si1cocks, and to Dr. G. Zammit-Maempel for making available to us several important papers on Maltese mammals. REFERENCES: BATE, D.l\LA. (1925) List of vertebrate remalllS from the Ghar Dalam Cave, Malta. (Collected by G. Caton Thompson in 1924). In: Murray, M.A. Excavations in Malta (Percy Sladen Memorial Fund Expedition) part II: 17-18. BATE, D.M.A. (1935) Two new mammals from the pleistocene of Malta, with notes on the associated fauna. Proc. zool. Soc. London, 1935: 247-264. GULlA, G. (1913) Uno sguardo alIa zoologia delle "Isole Maltesi". nth Congr. i ilL Zool. J11 O1U1CO, sect. 4:: 045-555. LANFRANCO, G.G. (1969) Maltese mammals (Central J\lediterranean). Malta 28 pp. 20 ROBERTS, E.L. (1954) The birds of Alalta Valletta: Progress Press, 168 pp. ~TORCH, G. (1970) Holozane Kleinsaugerfunde aus der Ghar Dalam-Hohle, Malta (Mammalia: Insectivora, Chiroptera, Rodentia). Senckenbergiana biol., 51 (3/4-): 135-145. SULTANA, J. (1971) Barn owl pellets. The 1i1altese Naturalist. 1 (2): 29. TOSCHI, A. & LANZA, B. (1959) Mammalia-Generalita-lnsectivora-Chirop-tera. (Fauna d'Italia, 4) Bologna: Calderini, 485 pp. V.\UFREY, R. (1929) Les elephants nains des iles mediterraneennes et la question des isthmes pleistocenes. A'rch.lnst.Paleont.hum.~ lHem., 6: 1-220. Additional Notes on the Holotype. COELOPLEURUS MELITENSIS Zammit-Maempel 1969. In 1969 I established a new species of Ceolopleurus on the basis of a single specimen which I had found overlying the Lower Coralline Limestone and under-lying the base of the Scutella bed on the north west coast of Malta. The Lower Coralline Limestone formation has sinee been attributed to the Upper Chattian (Late Oligocene), whilst the lower part of the overlying Globigerina Limestone is probably Aquitanian (Lower Miocene) (FELIX, 1973). The record of Coelopleurus from the Maltese neogene increases still further the evidence of Maltese Oligo-Miocene genera surviving in the Indo-Pacific regions, but in spite of repeated search for further specimens, none has been recovered. At the time of the original description of the type, it was not possible to locate the madrcporite. vVith better cleaning facilities and a re-study of the apical region, it has now become possible to locate the madreporite and consequently to orientate the echinoid. The additional plate noted at the level of the third pro-tuberant tubercle from he apex, has been found to lie in Ray 4 (Loven). The cause of the supernumerary interambulacral plate cannot be ascertained, but it is probably the result of splitting of the developing plate at its very site of origin in the angle between the genital and ocular plates as a consequence of tr8uma or parasitism. ACKNO\VLEDGEMENTS The helpful correspondence with Professor Devries is gratefully acknowledged. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES FELIX, R. (1973). Oligo-i11iocene straitigraphy of JUalta and Gozo. Ph.D. Thesis, Landbouwhogeschoe1 Wageningen 73.20. ZAMMIT-MEAMPEL, G. (1969). A new species of Ceolopleurus from the Miocene of Malta. Palaeontology 12(1): 4:2-47, plate 6, 1 text fig. G. Zammit-Maempel ;j:~, Main Street, Birkirkara, Malta 21 

On the occurrence of Crocidura Suaveolens Pallas (Mammalia, Insectivra) in the Maltese Islands with notes on other Maltese shrews

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On the occurrence of Crocidura Suaveolens Pallas (Mammalia, Insectivra) in the Maltese Islands with notes on other Maltese shrews

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