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Piebald Shrew

Diplomesodon pulchellus (Lichtenstein, 1823)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Open encyclopedia reference

The piebald shrew (Diplomesodon pulchellus) is a shrew found in the Turan Lowland east of the Caspian Sea in Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

It grows to 2 inches (5.1 cm) to 2.75 inches (7.0 cm) in length, and usually hunts for insects and lizards at night.

Wikipedia contributors, Piebald shrew; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T03:07:19.472692+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Diplomesodon pulchellus (Lichtenstein, 1823)
Name authority
(Lichtenstein, 1823)
Common name
Piebald Shrew
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Eulipotyphla
Family
Soricidae
Genus
Diplomesodon
Extinction status
Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
  9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
  10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
  11. orderEulipotyphla Waddell, Okada & Hasegawa, 1999
  12. familySoricidae G. Fischer, 1814
  13. subfamilyCrocidurinae A. Milne-Edwards, 1872
  14. genusDiplomesodon Brandt, 1852
  15. speciesDiplomesodon pulchellus (Lichtenstein, 1823)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 289 records assigned to Soricidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded nameSource status
Diplomesodon pulchellum (Lichtenstein, 1823) (Lichtenstein, 1823)synonym
Sorex pulchellus Lichtenstein, 1823 Lichtenstein, 1823synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Europe & Northern Asia (excluding China)

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1229430 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:36LXF. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.