Karyotypic variation of the common shrew Sorex araneus in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine

Karyotypes of 55 common shrews Sorer araneus Linnaeus, 1758 from 24 geographically distinct sites in Eastern Europe (Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine) were obtained using G-banding. Ten chromosome races were found, six of which had been described previously in the following countries: the Goldap race in Poland (Fedyk 1986), the Bialowieia race in Poland (Fredga and Nawrin 1977), the Pskov race in Russia (Zaitsev and Bulatova 1999), the Kiev race in Ukraine (Mishta 1994), the Lepel race in Belarus (Bulatova et al. 2000) and the Neroosa race in Russia (Bulatova et al. 2000). The four new races were characterised by the following metacentrics: gr, hh, ip, mn, oq (Tallinn race), hh, mn (Zuvintas race), hh (Turov race) and hi (Bobruysk race). The relationships of the different chromosome races of common shrew in Eastern Europe are examined.