214 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 275 



(Zavattari, 1934), regarded as a subspecies of E. munbyanus (Allen, 

 1939), reinstated as a full species, E. cyrenaicus (Ellerman, 1941), 

 and more recently regarded as a subspecies of E. quercinus (Ellerman 

 and Morrison-Scott, 1951; Toschi, 1954; Setzer, 1957). 



The most recent attempt to clarify the nomenclature of dormice 

 of the genus Eliomys is that of Niethammer (1959), in which he 

 united all members of the genus into a single species, Eliomys quercinus, 

 which he divided into the "quercinus," "lusitanicus," and "melanurus" 

 groups, based entirely upon the pattern of coloration on the ventral 

 surface of the tail. He recognized two subspecies of E. quercinus 

 in Libya, E. q. cyrenaicus of northern Cyrenaica, and E. q. tunetae 

 of northwestern Tripolitania, the latter again being considered as 

 distinct from E. q. munbyanus. These two subspecies, in addition 

 to E. q. melanurus of coastal Egypt, Sinai, and the Middle East, 

 constitute the "melanurus" group. The "quercinus" group is distrib- 

 uted over most of Europe, western U.S.S.R., and extends into 

 North Africa including Morocco and western Algeria. The range of 

 the "lusitanicus" group includes southern Spain and Italy and 

 several of the larger islands in the Mediterranean. 



In the present work, I have followed Neithammer's classification 

 by including all Libyan dormice within the "melanurus" group but 

 have extended appreciably the range of E. quercinus to include 

 the Fezzan. 



Eliomys quercinus cyrenaicus Festa 



Eliomys cyrenaicus Festa, Boll. Mus. Zool. Anat. Comp. Univ. Torino, vol. 36, 

 no. 740, p. 4, December 1921 (Gheminez, Cyrenaica). 



Specimens examined. One, from 5 km SE Derna, Cyrenaica 

 (skin, skull and skeleton). 



Measurements. The measurements of the above specimen, a 

 subadult female, 302274, are: Total length 211; length of tail 100; 

 length of hind foot 27; length of ear 25; greatest length of skull 

 31.9; condyloincisive length of skull 29; length of audital portion of 

 auditory bulla 9.9; crown length of upper molariform toothrow 5.4; 

 least interorbital breadth 4.2; greatest breadth across zygomatic 

 arches 17.9; length of nasals 11.4; breadth of braincase 14. G. 



Diagnosis. Upperparts Avellaneous with strong suffusion of gray, 

 becoming paler, more grayish, on sides; dorsal portion of rostrum 

 and interauricular area grading from Buckthorn Brown to Tawny- 

 Olive; cheeks, mystacial, subauricular, and scapular areas Pale 

 Pinkish Buff; area between eye and origin of vibrissae, entire eye 

 ring, and a broad band passing from eye to base of the pinna of the 

 ear, black with mild suffusion of gray; postauricular patches indis- 

 tinct; pinna of ear moderate in size, sparsely haired, approaching 

 the color of the pelage of the dorsum, and with a conspicuous tuft 



