Studies on The Karyotypes of Erinaceus amurensis and Hemiechinus auritus

The diploid chromosome numbers of E.amurensis and H.auritus were both 2n=48,and N.F.=92.The chromosome complement of E.amurensis was composed of 13 metacentric,6 submetacentric,3 subtelocentric,1 telocetric and the XY chromosome pair.Using the C-and Ag-NOR-banding techniques,it has been demonstrated that the large,terminal blocks of heterochromatin were distributed on the long arm of 5 pairs of chromosomes,and the Ag-NORs were all located terminally,usually close to the heterochromatin blocks on 2-3 chromosome pairs.The chromosome complement of H.auritus was composed of 18 metacentric,4 submetacentric,1 subtelocentric,and the XY chromosome pair.The C-bands have been found in 17 out of the 24 pairs of chromosome.The Ag-NORs was distributed on 3-5 chromosomes and the interstitial distribution of one Ag-NOR was found.Therefore,there were striking differences between the karyotypes of the two species.The authors suggested there were three different types of karyotypes among various geographic populations of E.amurensis at least.The karyotype of three species of genus Erinaceus (E.aurensis,E.europaeous and E.concolor),as well as the karyotype of three species of genus Hemiechinus (H.auritus,H.dauuricus and H.hugi),were compared respectively.The morphology of SC and the behavior of XY of E.amurensis have been studied.The G-banded karyotype of H.auritus was also presented.