MAMMAT>S OF Tf^^E MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 



331 



CITELLUS SPILOSOMA ARENS (Bailey)." 

 EL PASO SPOTTED GROUND-SQUIRREL. 



Spermophilus spilosnma arens Bailey, Proc. Biol. !Soc. Wa.«hinu;ton, XV, p. lis, 



June 2, 1902 (original description). 

 Cilelliis spilosoma arens Miller and Rehn, Proc. Bost. See. Nat. Hist., XXXI, 



No. 3, Aug. 27, 1903, p. 75 (Syst. Results Ht\.\(\y N. Am. Mam. during the 



years 1901 and 1902). 



Tuza (gopher) or Uron (officer) of the Mexicans. 



Geograj>hi('al r<ni<je. — Sonoran Zone, in southwestern Texas and the 

 adjacent parts of Mexico — the Eastern Desert Tract. 



Description. — Size small; form slender. Tail terete at base, some- 

 what flattened and bushy at extremity. Feet (Hj^-. 58) small. Ears 

 reduced to short rims. Length. 240 mm.; tail vertebrte, 80 (to end 

 of hairs, 100); hind foot, 35; head, 43. 

 Skull, 39 by 23.5. Mamnue, 5 pairs. 

 Iris hazel. Dichromatic, with reddish 

 and grayish color-phases. Pattern 

 spotted above, with ill-defined white 

 spots arranged in longitudinal series. 

 Ground color nearly uniform vina- 

 ceous-cinnamon, or rusty brownish 

 gray, according to the phase of color- 

 ation. Under surface and sides of 

 head, except a longitudinal infra- 

 orbital stripe, white. Tail vinaceous- 

 cinnamon above, except at the tip, 

 where the hairs are broadly banded 

 with black and tipped with yellow; 

 under surface of tail yellow. 



Cranial and dental cltaracters. — 

 Those of the subgenus XeroHper- 

 mophihis^ constituted by Doctor Merriam for the reception of the 

 spilosoma group, of which Citellim rnohavensis (Merriam) is the type. 

 Skull with shortened rostrum, broad nasals, narrow interpterygoid 

 space, sharply elevated supraorbital rim, and heavy, obliquely-set 

 teeth. The first upper premolar is much larger than in Ainmo- 

 spermophilus^ and about as in Citellus tereticaudiix. 



Remarks. — The hair is short and coarse at all seasons. In winter 

 there is some under fur, and the under surfaces are well covered; but 



Fig. 53.— Citeli.us spilosoma arens. Fort 

 HANfocK, Texas. (Cat Xo. 6o3S.5, L'.S. 

 N.M.I (!, Forefoot; 6, Hindfoot. 



«The subspecific name spilosoma was restricted by Merriam (N. Am. Fauna, No. 4, 

 p. 37, Oct. 8, 1890) to the animal occurring in northern Mexico and extreme western 

 Texas. In describing '' Spermophiius spilosoma marginafus," a new subspecies, from 

 Alpine, Texas, Mr. Bailey says that it is " Similar to the dark, typical form of spilo- 

 soma from northeastern Mexico, but smaller and brighter colored," the inference 

 being that he has refixed the type-locality of Citelhis sjjilosonia spilosoma to "north- 

 eastern Mexico." 



