Subspeciation in Pocket Gophers of Kansas, [KU. Vol. 1 No. 11]Hall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond)
Science
Subspeciation in Pocket Gophers of Kansas, [KU. Vol. 1 No. 11]
Hall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond)
Mammals -- Kansas; Pocket gophers
_Remarks._--In employing the subspecific name _majusculus_ we are
following Swenk (1939:6) who on the basis of larger size differentiated
the animals from southeastern South Dakota, the eastern parts of
Nebraska and Kansas, and the western and southern parts of Iowa, from
_G. bursarius bursarius_ to which he assigned a more northern geographic
range. In the absence of comparative materials of the northern
subspecies we cannot make an independent decision on the validity of
_majusculus_ and recognize that if it is inseparable from _G. b.
bursarius_ the latter name will apply to specimens from northeastern
Kansas. We are the more uncertain about applying the name _majusculus_
to specimens from eastern Kansas because they average smaller than
topotypes. Only at the northeasternmost locality in Kansas (3 mi. N
Cummings, Atchison County) do specimens average as large as topotypes of
_majusculus_. Farther southward they become progressively smaller in
eastern Kansas, and we interpret this as intergradation with the still
smaller subspecies _major_, to the southwest. The average external
measurements of two adult males from Atchison County are: 321-99-35.
Thirty-six miles farther south, in Douglas County, 16 adult males
average 289-80-36. From Hamilton, Greenwood County, 80 miles farther
southwest, nine adult males average 284-83-35. The maximum total length
recorded at these three localities is: Atchison County, 342 (1 of 2
specimens), Douglas County, 308 (1 of 16 specimens), Greenwood County,
357 (in coll. of Dr. Glenn C. Rinker and 1 of 15 males of all ages
involved). It will be seen, therefore, that although there is a trend to
smaller average size toward the southward, the maximum of 357
millimeters total length at Hamilton exceeds the maximum of 352
millimeters recorded by Swenk (1939:3) among 86 males at Lincoln where
the recorded average is largest.
Four specimens from Salina (Debold Farm) are intermediate structurally,
as they are also geographically, between _G. b. majusculus_ on the one
hand and _Geomys bursarius lutescens_ and _Geomys bursarius major_ on
the other hand. In color they agree with _majusculus_, as they do also
in width of nasals posteriorly, in more obtuse angle of the rostrum and
maxillary arm of the zygomatic arch. They agree with _G. b. lutescens_
in having the occiput inclined anterodorsally, and are intermediate
between _majusculus_ and _lutescens_, but nearer the latter in size of
skull and in length of the rostrum relative to its width.
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