The Kachin red-backed vole (''Eothenomys cachinus'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

in the family

Cricetidae The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At over 870 species, it is either the largest or second-largest family ...

. It is found in

Kachin State Kachin State (; Jingpho language, Kachin: ) is the northernmost administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet and Yunnan, respectively), Shan State to the sou ...

in northern

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

. Although described as a species by Thomas in 1921, it was subsequently included as a subspecies of either '' E. melanogaster'' or '' E. miletus''. Comparisons of a 1941 sampling showed that ''E. cachinus'' was indeed a separate species. Adults of the species are large-bodied, with longer tails than any other member of the genus ''Eothenomys'' (between 43 and 61mm) and thick, soft and long fur, the upper parts being brown and the lower parts grey. Compared to ''E. miletus'' the skull is shorter and not as wide, with a significantly lower profile.

References

* Wilson & Reeder's Mammal Species of the World (third edition) * Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. Eothenomys Mammals described in 1921 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas {{Arvicolinae-stub