Apodemus (mice) and
Rattus (rats) are the top rodent reservoirs for zoonoses in China, yet little is known about their diversity. We reexamined the alpha diversity of these two genera based on a new collection of specimens from China and their cyt
b sequences in GenBank. We also tested whether species could be identified using external and craniodental measurements exclusively. Measurements from 147 specimens of
Apodemus and 236 specimens of
Rattus were used for morphological comparisons. We analysed 74 cyt
b sequences of
Apodemus and 100 cyt
b sequences of
Rattus to facilitate phylogenetic estimations. Results demonstrated that nine species of
Apodemus and seven species of
Rattus, plus a new subspecies of
Rattus nitidus
, are distributed in China. Principal component analysis using external and craniodental measurements revealed that measurements alone could not separate the recognized species. The occurrence of
Rattus pyctoris
in China remains uncertain.
