16 Joshua Laerm, et al. 



montane forests of the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. In the 

 southeastern United States including Virginia and West Virginia, eastern 

 Kentucky and Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia, S. cinereus is 

 restricted primarily to high elevation montane communities of the 

 Appalachian Highlands (van Zyll de Jong and Kirkland 1989). To 

 date, however, there have been no records from South Carolina 

 (Golley 1966, Mengak et al. 1987). 



Previously, the southernmost records of S. cinereus have been 

 reported from Georgia based upon three specimens reported by 

 Wharton (1968) from Beech Creek near its confluence with the Talulla 

 River, Towns County, at an elevation of 807 m. More recently, Ford 

 et al. (In press) have reported S. cinereus from numerous, widely 

 scattered localities throughout the Blue Ridge Province of Georgia, 

 including localities in close proximity to the South Carolina state 

 line. Similarly, S. cinereus has been reported from several Blue Ridge 

 Province counties in North Carolina (Polk, Henderson, Transylvania, 

 Jackson, Macon, and Clay) which are contiguous to South Carolina 

 (Lee et al. 1982 and unpublished University of Georgia, Museum of 

 Natural History records). Because S. cinereus is known to occur in 

 immediately adjacent areas of Georgia and North Carolina and 

 because seemingly appropriate areas of high elevation habitat exist in 

 the Blue Ridge Province of South Carolina, we surveyed the moun- 

 tainous portions of Oconee, Pickens, and Greenville counties specifi- 

 cally for S. cinereus. 



METHODS 



From 23 January to 1 May 1994 pitfall trap surveys were 

 conducted throughout the Blue Ridge Province of extreme northwest- 

 ern South Carolina including, from east to west, portions of 

 Greenville, Pickens, and Oconee counties. We totalled 14,000 trap 

 nights at 17 individual sites. At each site twenty, 32-ounce, plastic 

 containers (14-cm lip diameter and 17-cm depth) were placed below 

 ground level adjacent to forest floor debris including stumps, fallen 

 logs, rocks, etc, for a minimum of 60 days. Approximately 0.14L of 

 preservative was placed in the bottom of each pitfall. General habitat 

 features, including dominant overstory and understory vegetation, 

 aspect, and approximate stand age, of each site were recorded and 

 elevations estimated from topographic maps. Traps were checked on 

 a biweekly basis. Specimens were preserved in alcohol for subsequent 

 reproductive and gut content analysis. Standard body measurements 

 were taken, and skulls were prepared for confirmation of identifica- 



