#arvicolinae

Western Red-backed Vole Myodes californicus

It is found in California and Oregon in the United States and lives mainly in coniferous forest. The western red-backed vole lives largely underground in an extensive system of burrows. It feeds primarily on fruiting bodies of hypogeous fungi.

It has been found that in a clear-cut forest where all the dead wood and trimmings are removed, the mycorrhiza stops fruiting, the vole population dies out and newly planted trees fail to thrive. This is an example of a three way symbiosis, as the vole gains food from the fungus and spreads its spores, and the fungus gains photosynthetic products from the tree which benefits from the nutrients produced by the fungus.

Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)

Muskrat (via USFWS Midwest Region)

Muskrats can sometimes become so abundant that they cause an "eat-out" to occur. The pile of muskrats in this picture caused an eat-out on the small wetland they lived in by eating all of the cattails and bullrushes within the wetland. The only thing left was a mound of dead vegetation to sit on.

Transcaucasian Mole Vole Ellobius lutescens

It is found in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Turkey. These voles have no SRY gene or Y chromosome; both sexes have an XO sex chromosome set. Their sex-determination (in development) method remains unknown.