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This study investigated geographic variation in the Asian lesser white-toothed shrew, Crocidura shantungensis Miller, 1901, among a number of localities in East Asia, including the Korean Peninsula, Tsushima Island, Cheju Island, and Taiwan, using univariate and multivariate analyses of cranial morphometric characters. Sexual differences were found in Taiwanese shrews, but were not evident in those from Korea or Tsushima. The samples from Taiwan had a larger overall cranial size than those from Korea and Tsushima, and were well separated from the latter two samples in the discriminant analyses. The overall size of the Cheju shrews was also greater, but lay within the variation of those from Taiwan. Crocidura dsinezumi quelpartis Kuroda, 1934, described from Cheju Island, is actually a junior synonym of C. shantungensis, and is not related to C. dsinezumi.

Molecular phylogeny of crocidurine shrews (Insectivora, Soricidae) in northeastern Asia was investigated to confirm the taxonomic status of unidentified specimens of Crocidura from Cheju Island, South Korea. Phylogenetic trees were constructed by neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods, based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences (402 base pairs) of 40 individuals of seven crocidurine species and three unidentified specimens from 31 localities mainly in northeastern Asia. Phylogenetic positions of the three unidentified specimens from Cheju Island were compared with those of Suncus murinus, C. attenuata, C. dsinezumi, C. lasiura, C. sibirica, C. suaveolens and C. watasei. Both in NJ and ML trees, the three unidentified specimens were included in the cluster of C. dsinezumi and obviously different from C. suaveolens on Cheju Island. Thus, the present investigation demonstrated that both of C. suaveolens and C. dsinezumi exist on Cheju Island.