The Sunda shrew (''Crocidura monticola'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

in the family Soricidae found in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. Populations from the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

and

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

are now considered to belong to '' Crocidura neglecta''. The widespread species ''C. neglecta sensu lato'', exhibits high levels of diversity. The divergence among populations from Peninsular Malaysia, west Borneo and north-east Borneo is higher than that among many other recognised related species, suggesting that these might deserve specific status. Species delimitation based on private

allele An allele is a variant of the sequence of nucleotides at a particular location, or Locus (genetics), locus, on a DNA molecule. Alleles can differ at a single position through Single-nucleotide polymorphism, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), ...

sharing also supports the species-level recognition of these populations and perhaps also that of the population. However, these have not been described due to lack of morphological evidence and the small number of localities included in species delimitation analyses. An increase in specimen collection and geographic coverage is needed to characterize the fine-scale distribution of this diversity and resolve the taxonomy of this group. It is found in the forest floor of the rainforest. It is an omnivore and feeds mostly on plants and leaves that fall from the emergent and the canopy layers. It is long and weighs less than .

References

Crocidura Mammals of Indonesia Mammals of Malaysia Mammals of Timor Mammals of Borneo Mammals described in 1870 Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{whitetoothed-shrew-stub