''Talpa'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

in the

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

family Talpidae. Among the first taxa in science, Carolus Linnaeus used the Latin word for "moles", ''talpa'', in his Regnum Animale to refer to the commonly known European form of mole. The group has since been expanded to include 13 extant species, found primarily in Europe and western Asia. The European mole, found throughout most of Europe, is a member of this genus, as are several species restricted to small ranges. One species,

Père David's mole Père David's mole (''Talpa davidiana'') is a mole found in the Middle East, ranging from south-central Turkey east to Kurdistan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country ...

, is

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

. These moles eat

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. Th ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, and other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s found in the soil. The females of this genus have rudimentary male features such as

Cowper's gland The bulbourethral glands or Cowper's glands (named for English anatomist William Cowper) are two small exocrine glands in the reproductive system of many male mammals (of all domesticated animals, they are absent only in dogs). They are homologo ...

s and a two-lobed prostate. A group of scientists has suggested that they are true hermaphrodites; however, others state that they are fully functional females. There are 13 species in this genus: *

Altai mole The Altai mole or Siberian mole (''Talpa altaica'') is a species of mole in the family Talpidae. It is found throughout the taiga zone of south-central Siberia in Russia, as far south as northern Mongolia and Kazakhstan. This mole lives in fore ...

, ''T. altaica'' *

Aquitanian mole The Aquitanian mole (''Talpa aquitania'') is a species of small burrowing mammal of the family Talpidae. It is found from the southwest of France to the north of Spain. Closely related to the European mole (''T. europaea''), this species was desc ...

, ''T. aquitania'' *

Blind mole The blind mole (''Talpa caeca''), also known as the Mediterranean mole, is a mole found in the Mediterranean region. It is similar to the European mole, differing most prominently in having eyes covered with skin. It is found in Albania, France, G ...

, ''T. caeca'' * Caucasian mole, ''T. caucasica'' *

, ''T. davidiana'' * European mole, ''T. europaea'' *

Levant mole The Levant mole (''Talpa levantis'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is found in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and Turkey. There are two subspecies, ''T. l. levantis'' and ''T. l. transcaucasica'' (the Transcaucasian mo ...

, ''T. levantis'' *

Martino's mole Martino's mole (''Talpa martinorum'') is a species of small blind mole in the family Talpidae found in eastern Thrace along the western Black Sea coast in south-eastern Bulgaria and north-eastern Turkey, mainly in the Strandzha mountain range. In ...

, ''T. martinorum'' *

Spanish mole The Spanish mole (''Talpa occidentalis'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is found in Spain and Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland ...

, ''T. occidentalis'' * Ognev's mole, ''T. ognevi'' *

Roman mole The Roman mole (''Talpa romana'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is found in southern Italy. It was last recorded on Sicily in 1885. There is also an unconfirmed report about an isolated subpopulation in the Var region of south ...

, ''T. romana'' *

Balkan mole The Balkan mole (''Talpa stankovici'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is found in Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia and Greece, including the island of Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; ...

, ''T. stankovici'' *

Talysch mole The Talysch mole (''Talpa talyschensis'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is a small member of the family, which outwardly resembles the Levant mole (''T. levantis''), but is genetically closer to Père David's mole (''T. david ...

, ''T. talyschensis'' In addition, one extinct species is known from

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

remains: the

Tyrrhenian mole The Tyrrhenian mole (''Talpa tyrrhenica'') is an extinct species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It was endemic to the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia during the Pleistocene epoch. First described in 1945 by Dorothea Bate, this ...

(''Talpa tyrrhenica'') from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

and

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. The current phylogeny of the species in the genus is shown below:

References

External links

Talpa Mammal genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{talpidae-stub