Subfamily Cricetinae G. Fischer, 1817. Mém. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscow, 5:372. COMMENTS: Reviewed by Corbet (1978c, 1984), who (1978c:88) noted that "generic divisions within the group are rather unstable and a fresh, comprehensive classification is required," a conclusion we echo after studying specimens and literature. One of these divisions is Cricetulus, and Corbet (1978c:90) acknowledged that some species he listed there are frequently placed in Allocricetulus and Tscherskia, but "pending a review of generic classification in the subfamily as a whole," he preferred to include those genera in Cricetulus. We prefer the opposite: to recognize the separate genera until the subfamily is systematically revised. In cranial morphology, Allocricetulus closely resembles Cricetus, not Cricetulus, and the latter is more like Phodopus than either Tscherskia or Allocricetulus. Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987) also treated Cricetulus, Allocricetulus, and Tscherskia as genera. Some of the Chinese hamsters were reviewed by Wang and Zheng (1973). Keys to the European species were provided by Niethammer (1982a). Chromosomal information for European species was recorded by Zima and Krâl (1984a). Carleton and Musser (1984) diagnosised the subfamily and reviewed general characters, major fossil groups, and other topics.

{"references": ["Corbet, G. B. 1978 c. The mammals of the Palaearctic region: A taxonomic review. British Museum (Natural History), London, 314 pp.", "Corbet, G. B. 1984. The mammals of the Palearctic region: A taxonomic review. Supplement. British Museum (Natural History), London, 45 pp.", "Pavlinov, I. Ya., and O. L. Rossolimo. 1987. Sistematika mlekopitayushchikh SSSR [Systematics of the mammals of the USSR.]. Moscow University Press, Moscow, 282 pp. (in Russian).", "Wang Sung and Zheng Chang-lin. 1973. [Notes on Chinese hamsters (Cricetinae).] Acta Zoologica Sinica, 19: 61 - 68 (in Chinese).", "Zima, J., and B. Kral. 1984 a. Karyotypes of European mammals. II. Acta Scientiarum Naturalium, Academiae Scientarium Bohemoslovacae (Brno), 18 (8): 1 - 62.", "Carleton, M. D., and G. G. Musser. 1984. Muroid rodents. Pp. 289 - 379, in Orders and families of Recent mammals of the world (S. Anderson and J. K. Jones, Jr., eds.). John Wiley and Sons, New York, 686 pp."]}

Published as part of Guy G. Musser & Michael D. Carleton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 501-755 in Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London :Smithsonian Institution Press on page 536, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7353098