The genus Arborimus is a group of voles found in western North America. The genus name means "tree mouse" in Latin.

These animals live in forested areas and two species live in trees. They are small rodents with short ears and long legs. They are primarily herbivorous. Predators include owls and mustelids.

Some sources include this genus with the heather voles, genus Phenacomys.

Classification

The complete list of species is:

• White-footed Vole (Arborimus albipes)
• Red Tree Vole (Arborimus longicaudus)
• Sonoma Tree Vole (Arborimus pomo)

Bellinger et al. (2005) and Blois and Arbogast (2006) determined on the basis of mitochondrial DNA that A. pomo and A. albipes are more closely related to one another than either are to A. longicaudus. This is in contrast to previous suggestions that A. albipes is the most basal species in the genus (outlined in Musser and Carleton, 2005).

References

• Bellinger, R., S. Haig, E. Forsman, and T. Mullins. 2005. Taxonomic relationships among Phenacomys voles endemic to western United States. Journal of Mammalogy, 86:201-210.
• Blois, J. L. and B. S. Arbogast. 2006. Conservation genetics of the Sonoma Tree Vole (Arborimus pomo) based on mitochondrial and amplified fragment length polymorphism markers. Journal of Mammalogy, 87:950-960.
• Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. In Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• "Arborimus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=180351. 

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