3 7^ Buelltin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVI, 



to be distributed in either Arctomys or SpermophUus. As the 

 name chosen for the new group is the Linnaean specific name 

 of the suoslik (changed in spelling from citellus to citillus}, this 

 species should be construed as the type of the genus Citillus, 

 although he included under it three other species there de- 

 scribed as new, only one of which, C. mugosaricus, is strictly 

 congeneric with C. citellus. 



As Oken's Citellus was based primarily on the Mus citellus 

 of Linnaeus and Pallas (Arctomys citillus Schreb.), as indicated 

 not only by the name but by the forms placed under it, it has 

 the same type as SpermophUus F. Cuvier, over which it has six 

 years' priority (even accepting the name in its original ver- 

 nacular form). As SpermophUus originally included only the 

 souslik, it is a strict synonym of Citellus Oken. .The fact that 

 other authors later referred to it other species, as Lesson in 

 1827 (Man. de Mamm., pp. 243-245), who appears to have 

 been the first author who employed the Latin form of the 

 name, this does not render the name of the originally mono- 

 typic SpermophUus available for any of the forms later 

 referred to it. 



In this connection it becomes of interest to see what pro- 

 vision has been made for the numerous species long currently 

 associated with the name SpermophUus. The named sections 

 of the group are the following, to which it may be necessary to 

 add others for a few well-marked types apparently as yet un- 

 provided for. Such deficiencies should only be supplied, how- 

 ever, on the basis of a careful revision of the entire group. 

 The names that have been proposed in a generic or subgeneric 

 sense, for the existing forms, in the order of date are: 



1. Citellus Oken, 1816, type Mus citellus Linn. = SpermophUus F. Cu- 



vier, 1 82 2; = Citillus Lichtenstein, 1830. 



2. Anisonyx Rafinesque, 1817, type Arctomys columbianus Ord, pre- 



occupied by Anisonyx Latreille, 1809, for a genus of Coleoptera. 



3. Otospermophilus Brandt, 1844, type Arctomys grammurus Say. 



4. Collobotis Brandt, 1844, type, Arctomys fulvus Lichtenstein. 



5. Otocolobus Brandt, 1844, an alternative name for Collobotis. 



6. Ictidomys Allen, 1877, type, Sciurus tridecemlineatus Mitchell. 



7. Spermophilopsis Blasius, 1884, type, Citillus leptodactylus Lichten- 



stein. 



