Vol. XXVI, pp. 1-4 January 18, 1913 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



TWO NEW POLECATS RELATED TO MUSTELA 



LARVATA. 



BY N. HOLLISTER. 

 [ Published here by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.] 



The polecats now referred to Miistela (Putoriiis) larvata are 

 divisible into at least three well marked forms, which, in the 

 absence of intermediate specimens, may be called species. The 

 great variations in color exhibited by the series in the United 

 States National Museum prove to be geographic, not individual, 

 and in the two cases where there are three skins from one 

 locality the specimens are remarkably uniform in color and 

 markings. The animal is rare in collections and, unfortun- 

 ately, we have no specimen from the type locality of larvata, 

 southwestern Tibet, near the border of Nepal. The good de- 

 scription of the original specimen of that form, supplemented 

 by the remarks on an additional example by Horsfield (Cat. 

 Mamm. Mus. East India Co., pp. 105-106) shows it to be of 

 ;t decidedly different color from either of the new forms de- 

 scribed in this paper. Mr. Thomas has recently expressed the 

 opinion that Kastschenko's Putorius eversmanni michnoi is a form 

 of larvata rather than of eversmanni (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 IX, p. 393, April, 1912). From a study of the description,* 

 with specimens from various localities before me, I find it agrees 

 better with a Siberian specimen of eversmanni than with any 

 specimen of the larvata group in the National Museum. Some 

 specimens of the two animals are, however, superficially much 

 alike, and mutilated trappers' skins without skulls might 

 readily lie confused. Only a direct comparison can settle the 



• Aim. Mus. Zool., St. Petersburg, XV, No. :;, p. 271, 1910. 



1— PROC. Biol. SOC. Wash., Vol. XXVI, 1913. (1) 



