The Middle East blind mole rat or Israel mole rat (Spalax ehrenbergi or Nannospalax ehrenbergi) is a species of rodents in the Spalacidae family found in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Turkey. Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubbish vegetation, and it is threatened by habitat loss.
Recent cytogenetic studies have shown S. ehrenbergi may actually be a species group containing several cryptic species with chromosome numbers 2n=48, 2n=52, 2n=54, 2n=56 and 2n=58.
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—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)
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—Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960)
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—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
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A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I’ th’ bottom of a cowslip.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)