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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 7, No. 11, pp. 587-590

November 15, 1954


A New Subspecies of Pocket Mouse
from Kansas

BY
E. RAYMOND HALL


UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE
1954




UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard,
Robert W. Wilson


Volume 7, No. 11, pp. 587-590
Published November 15, 1954


UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Lawrence, Kansas


PRINTED BY
FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1954

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A New Subspecies of Pocket Mouse from Kansas

by

E. Raymond Hall


When preparing distribution maps for a revised list of the Mammals of
Kansas it became apparent to me that pocket mice of the species
_Perognathus flavescens_ from south-central Kansas and adjoining parts
of Oklahoma were without a subspecific name. The new subspecies is
named and described below.


=Perognathus flavescens cockrumi= new subspecies

     _Holotype._--Female, subadult (P4 moderately worn), skin
     with skull, No. 13045, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist.; 4-1/2
     mi. NE Danville, Harper Co., Kansas; December 1, 1939;
     obtained by Sam Tihen; original No. 99 of J. A. Tihen.

     _Range._--South-central Kansas south at least into Dewey
     County, Oklahoma.

     _Diagnosis._--Size small; upper parts Ochraceous-Buff
     (capitalized color terms after Ridgway, Color Standards and
     Color Nomenclature, Washington, D. C., 1912) heavily
     suffused with black; postauricular patches and a band 8 mm
     wide on each side Ochraceous-Buff; subauricular spot,
     underparts, and forefeet white; hind feet slightly dusky;
     tail brownish above and white below. Skull small; tympanic
     bullae small; rostrum wide; skull indistinguishable from
     that of _P. f. flavescens_ from the same latitude in western
     Kansas.

     _Comparisons._--_Perognathus flavescens cockrumi_ averages
     approximately 12 per cent smaller in linear measurements
     than the more northern _Perognathus flavescens perniger_
     Osgood (from Knox, Stanton and Cumming counties, Nebraska)
     but color of upper parts is essentially the same. From the
     more western _Perognathus flavescens flavescens_ Merriam
     (from Seward, Hamilton and Morton counties, Kansas),
     _cockrumi_ differs in being darker in all parts of the
     pelage except on the underparts which are white in both
     subspecies; the parts of the hairs that are Ochraceous-Buff
     in _cockrumi_ are Light Ochraceous-Buff in _flavescens_; the
     back of _cockrumi_ is blackish instead of yellowish. From
     the more southern _Perognathus flavescens copei_ Rhoads
     (topotypes examined but not at hand as I write), _cockrumi_
     differs in duller more blackish (less bright and less
     reddish) upper parts. From _Perognathus merriami gilvus_, of
     more southern distribution, the new subspecies differs in
     much smaller tympanic bullae and wider rostrum.

     _Measurements._--The type, a male (35331/47596 U.S.B.S.,
     from Cairo, Kansas, showing some wear on P4), and another
     male (60165 K. U., from Barber Co., Kansas, showing much
     wear on P4) measure, respectively: Total length, 114, 120,
     124; tail, 51, 55, 58; hind foot, 17, 17, 18; occipitonasal
     length, ----, 21.0, 21.6; condylobasal length (condyles to
     anterior end of premaxillae), 18.5, 18.6, 19.3; frontonasal
     length, ----, 14.1, 14.3; mastoidal breadth, 10.5, 11.2,
     11.2; length of bulla, 6.8, 7.1, 6.8; interorbital breadth,
     4.7, 4.8, 5.1; alveolar length of upper molariform
     tooth-row, 3.1, 3.1, 3.0; interparietal breadth, 4.3. 4.6,
     4.7.

_Remarks._--The subspecific name _cockrumi_ is proposed in recognition
of Dr. E. Lendell Cockrum's important contribution to our knowledge of
the mammals of Kansas. Dr. W. Frank Blair recently suggested to me that
the two specimens examined by him from Kansas (the one from Ellsworth
County and the one here designated as holotype) should not be referred
to _Perognathus flavescens copei_ Rhoads, as Cockrum (Univ. Kansas
Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 7:146, August 25, 1952) had done, because
_copei_ is paler, instead of darker, than _P. f. flavescens_. It was
Dr. Blair's suggestion which lead me to realize that the subspecies in
south-central Kansas lacked a name.

Through the courtesy of Miss Viola S. Schantz I have examined three of
the four specimens from Cairo, Kansas, that Osgood (N. Amer. Fauna,
18:21, September 20, 1900) referred to _Perognathus flavescens_ before
any subspecies of that species had been recognized. The specimens from
Cairo are intermediate in color, as they are also in geographic
position, between _P. f. flavescens_ from western Kansas and _P. f.
cockrumi_ from south-central Kansas but show more resemblance to the
latter and therefore are referred to _P. f. cockrumi_. The specimens,
excepting the three from Cairo, are in the Museum of Natural History at
the University of Kansas.

     _Specimens examined._--Total, 10 distributed as follows:

     _=Kansas:=_ ELLSWORTH CO.: 1-1/2 mi. S Wilson, 1. PRATT CO.:
     Cairo, 3 (U.S. B.S.). BARBER CO.: Plum Thicket Farm [= 1 mi.
     E and 3 mi. N Sharon], 4. HARPER CO.: 4-1/2 mi. N Danville, 1.

     _=Oklahoma:=_ DEWEY CO.: 6 mi. W and 1/2 mi. S Canton, 1.


_Transmitted August 23, 1954._


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Transcriber's Notes:

Bold text is shown within =equal signs=.

Italic text is shown within _underscores_.