UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



ZOOLOGY 



■^'^. 



km 71919 



Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 43-47 



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Ofial Mus^' 



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March 29, 1919 



FIVE NEW FIVE-TOED KANGAROO RATS 

 FROM CALIFORNIA 



BY 



JOSEPH GEINNELL 



(Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California^ 



Study of the collection of five-toed kangaroo rats (genus Perodipus) 

 contained in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology discloses the existence 

 within the state of California of five species not heretofore named. 

 Ability to describe these now is mainly due to the successful efforts 

 during the past two years on the part of our field collectors to secure 

 topotype series of those species which had already been described. 

 This topotype material has made it possible to define clearly the main 

 characters of the species as would have been impossible from the 

 published descriptions alone. 



Perodipus elephantiims, new species 

 Elephant-eared Kangaroo Rat 



Type. — Male adult, skin and skull; no. 28511, Mus. Vert. Zool. ; 

 1300 feet altitude, one mile north of Cook P. 0., Bear Valley, San 

 Benito County, California ; July 9, 1918 ; collected by Halsted G. 

 White ; original no. 2296. 



Diagnosis. — A large sized, very large-eared, long-tailed Perodipus, 

 of moderately dark tone of coloration (about as in P. agilis [Gambel] ) ; 

 skull with very large mastoid and auditory bullae, very narrow supra- 

 occipital and inter-parietal, nasals flaring at ends, and tapering and 

 wealdy angled maxillary arch ; incisors heavy. 



Compariso'n-s.— In matter of general size, P. elephantinus is, of all 

 the known species of Perodipus, smaller only than P. ingens Merriam. 

 From this species it differs in that the ear is very much larger, the 

 body smaller, the hind foot shorter, the coloration darker in tone, the 

 skull generally smaller, narrower and more shallow, the jugal more 

 slender, and the maxillary arch tapering and less strongly angled. 



