The lesser mole rat (Spalax leucodon) is a species of rodents in the Spalacidae family found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, Turkey, and Ukraine. Recently, its taxonomic position is changing in the light of new scientific information.
Firstly, modern authors tend to separate this and some closely related mole rat species from other Spalax species by classifying them into a separate genus named Nannospalax.
Secondly, a recent cariological study shows Nannospalax leucodon is a superspecies consisting of several cariologically dinstinct cryptic species. It has four separate cariological forms in the Carpathian Basin, one of them is endangered, another one is vulnerable and no data are available to evaluate the conservation status of the other two forms.
Famous quotes containing the words lesser, mole and/or rat:
“I think there’s never a man in Christendom
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he,
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I’ th’ bottom of a cowslip.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A rat eats, then leaves its droppings.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 85, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)