Notes on the Distribution and Taxonomy of Short- 

 tailed Shrews (Genus Blarina) in the Southeast 



Thomas W. French ' 



Department of Life Sciences, 



Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809 



ABSTRACT. — Seven hundred twenty-nine skulls of short-tailed 

 shrews (genus Blarina) were examined from 152 counties in Alabama, 

 Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. 

 One hundred ninety-three B. brevicauda and 265 B. carolinensis were 

 compared by a stepwise discriminant analysis. Twenty-one central 

 Tennessee specimens were compared to these two identified target 

 samples. Although specimens from central Tennessee are scarce, the 

 cranial measurements of some appear intermediate in size. Plots of the 

 first two canonical variables show specimens from Hickman, Putnam 

 and Warren counties, Tennessee as distinct from either B. brevicauda 

 or B. carolinensis target clusters. A partial distribution map defining 

 the ranges of B. brevicauda and B. carolinensis in the Southeast is 

 presented. A possible disjunct population of B. brevicauda is reported 

 from both sides of the Chattahoochee River in Alabama and Georgia. 



INTRODUCTION 



Short-tailed shrews of the genus Blarina are the most abundant and 

 ubiquitous soricids in the Southeast. The taxonomy of this genus is cur- 

 rently undergoing revision, but recent publications (Genoways and 

 Choate 1972; Ellis et al. 1978; Schmidley and Brown 1979; Tate et al. 

 1980) recognize a large northern form, Blarina brevicauda, and a small 

 southern form, Blarina carolinensis, as distinct species. Another large 

 phena, B. telmalestes, restricted to the vicinity of the Great Dismal 

 Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina, is also currently recognized as 

 distinct (Jones et al. 1979). Handley (1971) considered B. brevicauda 

 and B. carolinensis to be entirely allopatric but contiguous, and Graham 

 and Semken (1976) considered them to represent the parapatric coexis- 

 tence of sibling species. Some early workers reported a zone of intergra- 

 dation between the two phena which were then recognized as well dif- 

 ferentiated subspecies (Merriam 1895; Cockrum 1952; Jones and Findley 

 1954), while others were unable to recognize intergrades (Rippy 1967; 

 Schlitter and Bowles 1967). More recent workers have found individual 

 areas of sympatry between B. brevicauda and B. carolinensis, both in 

 Recent (Genoways and Choate 1972; Ellis et al. 1978; Tate et al. 1980) 

 and Pleistocene material (Graham and Semken 1976), with only isolated 

 cases of possible hybrids (Genoways and Choate 1972; Tate et al. 1980). 



'Current address: Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Natural 

 Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 



Brimleyana No. 6: 101-110. December 1981 101 



