Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Matthew Wheaton and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net SUBSPECIATION IN POCKET GOPHERS OF KANSAS By BERNARDO VILLA-R. and E. RAYMOND HALL University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 1, No. 11, pp. 217-236 November 29, 1947 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1947 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, H. H. Lane, and Edward H. Taylor Volume 1, No. 11, pp. 217-236 Published November 29, 1947 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FRED VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1947 21-8188 Subspeciation in Pocket Gophers of Kansas By BERNARDO VILLA-R. AND E. RAYMOND HALL Several full species of the genus _Geomys_ have been recorded from Kansas. The purpose of the study now reported upon was to determine the present taxonomic status of these animals and the distribution of each within the boundaries of Kansas. No pocket gopher of any kind has been reported from the southeastern part of the state; in all other parts _Geomys_ is locally common. HISTORY The first published reference that we have found to pocket gophers of Kansas is Prof. Spencer F. Baird's (1857:377, 380) mention of two specimens from Fort Riley. One he identified as _Geomys bursarius_ (p. 377) and the other (p. 380) he doubtfully referred to _Geomys breviceps_. Both specimens were obtained by Dr. W. A. Hammond. J. A. Allen (1874:49) reported pocket gophers from Kansas under the generic name "Geomys?". Professor M. V. B. Knox (1875:21) published a list of Kansas mammals in which he used the names _Geomys bursarius_ Shaw and _Geomys breviceps_ Baird, the last one for the specimen taken by Dr. Hammond, at Fort Riley. Baker (1889:57) employed the name _Geomys bursarius_ Rich. for the gopher "found along the hundredth meridian, between N latitude 38° 30' and 39° 30'." He reported this animal as common in western Kansas. Merriam (1895:129) recorded _G. bursarius_ and _G. lutescens_ from Kansas. Allen (1895:265) recorded five specimens of _Geomys lutescens_ collected between September 16 and October 13 at Long Island, Phillips County, Kansas, by W. W. Granger. Since that time several papers, some of them dealing mostly with habits of pocket gophers, have been published in which reference is made to _Geomys_ in Kansas. Hibbard (1933:240) recognized three species: _G. bursarius_, _G. lutescens_, and _G. breviceps llanensis_. In 1944 (74-75) he recorded _Cratogeomys_ from Meade County, on the basis of two skulls dug out of the ground, and he recognized the same three full species of the genus _Geomys_ that he did in 1933, along with two additional subspecies.