University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History
Volume 5, No. 26, pp. 343-371
December 15, 1952
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE
1952
University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History
Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard,
Edward H. Taylor, Robert W. Wilson
Volume 5, No. 26, pp. 343-371
December 15, 1952
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
PRINTED BY
FERD VOILAND. JR., STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1952
In preparing maps showing the geographic distribution of North Americanmammals we have found in the literature conflicting statementsconcerning the subspecific identity of several rodents. Whereverpossible, we have examined the pertinent specimens. Results of ourexamination are given below.
Our studies have been aided by a contract (NR 161-791) between theOffice of Naval Research, Department of the Navy, and the University ofKansas. Also, a grant from the Kansas University Endowment Associationhas permitted field work that yielded some of the specimens used forcomparison. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the persons in charge ofthe several collections of mammals that we have consulted in order tosatisfy ourselves concerning the subspecific status of specimens frommany localities.
Marmota flaviventer luteola A. H. Howell
A. H. Howell (N. Amer. Fauna, 37:50, April 7, 1915) referred specimensfrom Bridgers Pass, Wyoming, to Marmota flaviventer dacota, on thebasis of paler underparts because, according to the data of Howell (op.cit.), M. f. dacota and M. f. luteola, the contiguous subspecies,do not differ significantly in other ways. Casual comparison reveals tous no additional differences between the two. We have examined the threespecimens available to Howell from Bridgers Pass (Nos. 18733/25527,18734/25528, and 18735/25529 U. S. Biol. Surv. Coll.) and find the toneof the underparts to be darker (more nearly russet) than in typicalluteola. The tone, however, varies considerably, both individually andgeographically, in luteola and it is possible to match almost exactlythe ventral coloration of the specimens from Bridgers Pass with that ofspecimens from within the geographic range of luteola; Nos. 160509,from Bear Creek, 8 miles west of Eagle Peak, Wyoming, 18875 and18731/25535, from the Laramie Mts., Wyoming, and No. 203744 from SulphurSprings, Grand County, Colorado, all in the United States Biological[Pg 346]Surveys Collection, are examples to the point. Being influenced by thegeography of the region, we therefore consider the three specimens fromBridgers Pass best referred to the subspecies Marmota flaviventerluteola.
Spermophilus variegatus grammurus (Say)
A. H. Howell (N. Amer. Fauna, 56:147, May 18, 1938) accorded Citellus[= Spermophilus] variegatus utah Merriam a geographic range thatincluded the Kaibab Plateau of Arizona. Durrant (Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus.Nat. Hist., 6:119, August 10, 1952) assigned to S. v. grammurus ageographic range that included southern Utah from the eastern to thewestern border but in doing this did not mention the rock squirrel ofthe Kaibab Plateau of Arizona that a