Body hair features of the Japanese dormouse: comparison with the large Japanese field mouse and local variation

Abstract

We measured the density and length of underfur and straight guard hair of the Japanese dormouse Glirulus japonicus (n = 30) using museum specimens and compared these two characters with those of the large Japanese field mouse Apodemus speciosus (n = 5) caught in wild. We also investigated geographical variation in dormouse body hair. We found that density of body hair and the relative ratio of underfur of the dormouse is greater than those of the field mouse. We also found that the dormice investigated in the study were divided into two groups based on the cluster analysis, which did not seem to correspond to known genetically different populations. This indicates that local variation can be found in body hair irrespective of genetic variation.