Taxonomic Interpretation of Allopatric Mammalian Forms on the Example of Two Karyoforms of Microtus (Terricola) subterraneus (Rodentia, Arvicolinae) from Eastern Europe.

New European pine vole records from the Novgorod, Kaluga, Voronezh, and Belgorod oblasts were studied by sequencing of the mtDNA cytb gene (1143 bp) and by karyotyping (routine staining and G-banding techniques). The results enabled us to summarize chromosome variability of this species throughout Eastern Europe. In the sample studied, two geographically replacing chromosomal forms have been identified: northern, 2n = 54 (Novgorod and Kaluga oblasts), and southern, 2n = 52 (Voronezh and, presumably, Belgorod oblasts).

[Caucasian cryptic species of rodents as models for studying the problem of species and speciation].

The problem of species and speciation is considered using as a model the cryptic species of rodents inhabiting the Caucasus, the mountain chain with prominent altitude environmental gradient and insular pattern of mountain habitats. These circumstances open additional possibilities for the choice of species conception (biological or phylogenetic), exploration of ancestry pathways (sympatric or allopatric speciation) of model cryptic species groups, and testing the 'refuge' hypothesis. As model species, sibling-species Sicista from the group 'caucasica' (a group of unstriped birch mice) and representatives of the vole subspecies Terricola (Microtus, Arvicolinae) were used.

[Spatial structure of natural foci of hantavirus on the territory of Northwestern Caucasus].

For the period from 2001 to 2011 zoological and epizootological studies in more than 100 points of Northwestern Caucasus including territories of Krasnodar Region and Republic of Adygea were carried out. 8723 specimens of small mammals represented by 20 rodent species and 7 insectivorous species were captured and examined. Organs and blood from 5057 specimens of creatures were studied for hantavirus infection.

[Meiosis in gray voles of the subgenus microtus (rodentia, arvicolinae) and in their hybrids].

The results of light and electron microscopic (EM) studies of meiosis in Microtus arvalis males of the karyoform "arvalis" (2n = 46, NFa = 80), in hybrids between the chromosomal forms arvalis and obscurus (2n = 46, NFa = 68), in M. rossiaemeridionalis voles (2n = 54, NFa = 54), and in a hybrid between the species M. rossiaemeridionalis and M.