DOES MICROTUS-MAJORI OCCUR IN EUROPE

Voles from Mt. Pelister, Macedonia, which are known from the literatur e as Microtus majori, were subjected to morphometric, karyotypic and e lectrophoretic analyses, and compared with Microtus subterraneus from Slovenia and Montenegro, and Microtus majori from Asia Minor. The dipl oid chromosome number of the Pelister voles (2n = 52) is the same as i n M. subterraneus from the Balkans. Genetic distances, as revealed by electrophoretic analysis of 27 gene loci between voles from Mt. Pelist er and M. subterraneus from Slovenia and Montenegro correspond to thos e generally observed among subspecies of Arvicolidae. Discriminant ana lysis of 12 raw skull measurements separated successfully M. majori fr om M. subterraneus. According to this, the Pelister population should be allocated to the latter, which means that there is no reason to inc lude M. majori in the list of the European fauna.