Notes on the nomenclature of Sicista Griffith, 1827 (Rodentia: Sminthidae)

The nomenclature of the genus Sicista Griffith, 1827 was believed to be reviewed and finally established by Holden & Musser (2005) in the third edition of the Mammal Species of the World. After examining a number of ancient texts we came to several conclusions that should affect the scientific names of several taxa, particularly their synonymy, authorship and dates of publishing. We propose the following names as valid: Sminthidae Brandt, 1855; Sicista Griffith, 1827; Sicista lorigera (Nordmann, 1839); Sicista betulina (Pallas, 1779); and Sicista subtilis vaga (Pallas, 1779). Sicista trizona transylvanica is nomenclaturally available from the publication of the final version of a paper by Cserkesz et al. (2016), but not from the early view of that paper which appeared in 2015.