Comments on the Taxonomy and Geographic Distribution of North American MicrotinesHall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond)
Science
Comments on the Taxonomy and Geographic Distribution of North American Microtines
Hall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond)
Lemmings; Voles
1841. _Arvicola scalopsoides_ Audubon and Bachman, Proc. Acad. Nat.
Sci. Philadelphia, 1:97, type from Long Island, New York.
1912. _Pitymys pinetorum scalopsoides_ Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus.
Bull., 79:229, December 31.
Hanson (Trans. Wisconsin Acad. Sci., Arts, and Letters, 36:124, 1944)
reported two pine mice from near Prairie du Sac, in Westpoint Township,
Columbia County, Wisconsin, as _Pitymys pinetorum scalopsoides_ but
cast doubt upon their subspecific identity. He also reported pine mice
from Blue Mounds, Dane County, Wisconsin. We have examined these
specimens (Westpoint, Columbia County, 2--No. 544, skin only, UWDEZ,
and No. 521, skin only, H. C. Hanson's private collection; Westpoint,
Dane County, 1, No. 11620, UWZM; Vermont, Dane County, 2, Nos. 11674
and 11694, UWZM) and have compared them with topotypes of _P. p.
schmidti_, and with specimens of _P. p. nemoralis_ and _P. p.
scalopsoides_. The specimens from Columbia and Dane counties differ
from _P. p. schmidti_ in the greater zygomatic breadth, and lesser
height of skull. They differ from _P. p. nemoralis_ of comparable age
in shorter tooth-row and generally smaller skull. The interorbital
region, however, is wider. In all of the features mentioned above, the
specimens in question agree with _Pitymys pinetorum scalopsoides_, to
which subspecies they are here referred.
Microtus pennsylvanicus aztecus (Allen)
1893. _Arvicola (Mynomes) aztecus_ Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat.
Hist., 5:73, April 28, type from Aztec, 5900 ft., San Juan County,
New Mexico.
Allen (_loc. cit._) described this species on the basis of two
specimens from Aztec, New Mexico, and three from La Plata, New Mexico.
He characterized it as "Size large; pelage very full and soft; tail
short; skull very narrow.
"Above grayish brown with a tinge of pale buff; fur blackish plumbeous
beneath the surface, tipped with pale yellowish brown, and varied with
longer, projecting, black-tipped hairs; below grayish white, the fur
plumbeous beneath the surface and tipped with white, giving a whitish
gray effect. Feet dusky; tail dusky brown above, dull white below."
Allen identified as this species "a large _Arvicola_ from Estes Park,
Colorado, which I have before been unable to allocate. I am unable to
find that it differs in any particular from the specimens from New
Mexico." He pointed out also (_op. cit._:73-74) that "The type and only
positively identified specimen of Baird's _Arvicola modesta_ [=
_Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus_ (Baird)] from Sawatche Pass,
Colorado, is a very young specimen in poor condition. An examination of
a series of adult and young examples from the type locality will be
necessary in order to determine its relationships to _A. alticolus_ [=
_Microtus longicaudus alticolus_ (Merriam)] and _A. aztecus_."
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