La Touche's mole (''Mogera latouchei'') is a species of mammal in the family

Talpidae The family Talpidae () includes the moles (some of whom are called shrew moles and desmans) who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean ...

. It is found in eastern China and parts of northern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. It is named after Irish naturalist

John David Digues La Touche John David Digues La Touche (5 June 1861 Tours – 6 May 1935, Majorca (at sea)) was an Irish ornithologist, naturalist, and zoologist. October, 1935 issue. La Touche's career was as a customs official in China. The La Touche family was of Hugue ...

. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the

insular mole The insular mole (''Mogera insularis'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is restricted to Hainan Island and Taiwan, where it is also known as the Formosan blind mole. The species was first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1863. ...

(''M. insularis'') of

Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly ...

and eastern

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

(or alternatively just eastern Taiwan), but a 2007 genetic analysis found both species to be distinct from one another. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that ''M. latouchei'' is a

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to a clade comprising the 2-3 island-endemic ''Mogera'' species from China and Taiwan (''M. insularis'', ''M. kanoana'', and ''M. hainana'' if the latter is considered distinct from ''insularis''). Diagnostic characteristics of the species are its small size, dark fur, and wide auditory opening in the skull, the latter of which is distinct from any other ''

Mogera ''Mogera'' is a genus of mammals in the family Talpidae. Moles in this genus differ from Old World moles in the genus ''Talpa'' in having one fewer pairs of lower incisors and in having larger hind premolars in the lower jaw. Species The gen ...

'' species. Specimens of ''M. latouchei'' from Vietnam and China have similar skeletal characteristics, but Vietnamese populations are thought to be larger and have a more robust skull; this could potentially indicate the presence of a

cryptic species In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

within the ''M. latouchei'' lineage In Vietnam, ''M. latouchei'' has a peripatric distribution with respect to the long-nosed mole (''Euroscaptor longirostris''), with La Touche's mole being found at low elevations from 600 to 800 meters, including in farmland, and the long-nosed mole only being found above 800 meters. This indicates that both species may be competitors with one another.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q41084981 Mogera Mammals of China Mammals of Vietnam Mammals described in 1907 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas