Geographic Distribution of the Pocket Mouse, Perognathus fasciatusJones, J. Knox
Science
Geographic Distribution of the Pocket Mouse, Perognathus fasciatus
Jones, J. Knox
Pocket mice
Of the seven topotypes available to me, six show various degrees of
encroachment of the color of the lateral line upon the underparts,
giving the ventral surface a buffy appearance, the "distinguishing
character" of the subspecies according to Osgood (_op. cit._:20). When
additional specimens are available, this character may be found to be
one of individual variation, although no specimens from other parts of
the range of the species have been found to exhibit it. Of the
subspecies _P. f. infraluteus_, each of the eight specimens examined by
me possesses buffy subauricular patches.
The specimen from 7 mi. N Ramah, Colorado, is slightly darker and less
drab than the topotypes and does not possess buffy underparts. The skull
of the specimen is broken but on the basis of characters of the pelage
it seems to be intermediate between _infraluteus_ and _olivaceogriseus_
and is referred to the former on geographic grounds.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 8, as follows: COLORADO:
_Elbert County_: 7 mi. N Ramah, 1 (MZ). _Larimer County_: Loveland,
7 (USBS).
=Perognathus fasciatus litus= Cary
_Perognathus fasciatus litus_ Cary, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 24:61,
March 22, 1911, type from Sun, Sweetwater Valley, Natrona
County, Wyoming.
_Geographic distribution._--Lower Sweetwater Valley and adjacent
parts of Red Desert in Carbon, Fremont, Natrona and Sweetwater
counties, Wyoming (see Figure 1).
_Remarks._--For comparisons with _Perognathus fasciatus
olivaceogriseus_, geographically adjacent to the northeast, see account
of that subspecies. From _Perognathus fasciatus callistus_,
geographically adjacent to the southwest, _P. f. litus_ differs in:
Upper parts paler with no trace of olivaceous; hind foot shorter; skull,
when specimens of equal age are compared, averaging smaller in all
measurements taken (especially occipitonasal length, mastoidal breadth,
length of tympanic bulla and cranial depth), except interparietal
breadth which is more.
No fully adult specimens of _P. f. litus_ have been available to me for
this study. Two of the three specimens mentioned by Cary in the original
description (holotype not seen) have been examined and found to possess
adult pelage, but cranially they must be classed as young adults. These
specimens are paler than those of any other subspecies of _fasciatus_
and do not have the olivaceous dorsal coloration present in other
subspecies.
_P. f. litus_ is seemingly an endemic race in the lower Sweetwater
Valley and adjacent parts of the Red Desert, Wyoming. The type locality,
recorded by Cary in the original description as "Sun, Sweetwater Valley,
Wyoming," is here placed in Natrona County on the basis of the map
(frontispiece) in Cary's (1917) "Life Zone Investigations in Wyoming."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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