NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Asian Garden Dormouse
Eliomys melanurus (Wagner, 1840)
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.
Desert Dormouse, Eliomys melanurus. At Frankfurt Zoo.
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The Asian garden dormouse or large-eared garden dormouse (Eliomys melanurus) is a species of rodent in the family Gliridae. It is found in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey.
Its natural habitats are temperate forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, rocky areas and gardens.
It is active throughout the year but can enter a state of torpor. Diet consists mainly of insects, snails, centipedes and geckos but as an omnivore, it will also eat plant matter. It is a common species and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
Wikipedia contributors, Asian garden dormouse; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T09:06:01.470911+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Eliomys melanurus (Wagner, 1840)
- Name authority
- (Wagner, 1840)
- Common name
- Asian Garden Dormouse
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Rodentia
- Family
- Gliridae
- Genus
- Eliomys
- 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.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderRodentia Bowdich, 1821
- suborderSciuromorpha Brandt, 1855
- familyGliridae Muirhead, 1819
- subfamilyLeithiinae Lydekker, 1896
- genusEliomys Wagner, 1840
- speciesEliomys melanurus (Wagner, 1840)
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Myoxus melanurus Wagner, 1840 Wagner, 1840 | synonym |
| Eliomys cyrenaicus Festa, 1922 Festa, 1922 | synonym |
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.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=584969 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.
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:6F3S8. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.