75 
Northern Flying Squirrel in Virginia 
during an ongoing study that was initiated in 1985 (Fies and Pagels 
1988). The locations included the Grayson site (19 captures) where the 
specimen apparently killed by a mink was found and the Smyth Co. site 
(10 captures) of Handley’s (1980) first record in 1959. The other sites 
were in Highland Co., approximately 5 km S (1 capture) and 20 km S (3 
captures), respectively, of the site where the snap-trapped specimens 
described above were taken. These sites, at 1,097 m and 1,219 m, were 
also mixed forests characterized by red spruce and various northern 
hardwood species. 
In West Virginia, where a nest-box and live-trapping study of G. 
sabrinus has been under way for several years (Stihler et al. 1987), of 
more than 60 captures, G. sabrinus was taken only in spruce or spruce- 
northern hardwood forests (K. B. Knight and C. W. Stihler, personal 
communication). However, as we found at one of our Highland Co. 
sites where a stand of red spruce was 10 m away, red spruce does not 
necessarily characterize the point of capture. Weigl (1987) observed, 
“Although often associated with spruce-fir forests, this form is more 
commonly captured in adjacent stands of mature hardwoods . . . .” It is 
curious that no spruce or fir trees were present within miles of the 
capture site of a specimen taken in 1935 in Tennessee (Handley 1953). 
Payne et al. (1989) found red spruce in their transects at all 13 sites 
where G. sabrinus was collected. Nearly all data indicate that both 
northern-type conifers and northern hardwoods are necessary com- 
ponents of the habitat of G. sabrinus. 
The specimens from the Highland Co. site were examined for 
parasites. Both of the squirrels harbored nematode parasites. The large 
female (VCU 4629) had Syphacia thompsoni (3 males, 10 females) in the 
cecum, Strongyloides robustus (31 females) in the anterior 10 cm of the 
small intestine, and a single male Citellinema bifurcatum also in the 
anterior small intestine. The smaller female (VCU 4630) had a female S. 
robustus in the anterior 10 cm of the small intestine and 11 male S. 
thompsoni in the cecum. 
Only the formalin-fixed intestinal tract of the Grayson Co. specimen 
(VCU 4615) was available for parasitological study. Two female S. 
robustus were found in the anterior small intestine, and two male S. 
thompsoni in the cecum. Unsporulated coccidean oocysts that averaged 
21.8 pm by 14.3 pm were present but uncommon. By gross examination 
slight hyperemia of the intestine was noted in the area surrounding the 
31 individuals of S. robustus. 
»• 
All of these nematode species have been reported from sciurid hosts 
in Virginia previously (Davidson 1976, Eckerlin 1985, Parker 1968, 
1971, Price 1928) and from Glaucomys sabrinus elsewhere in the United 
States (Eckerlin 1974, Rausch and Tiner 1948), but they have not 
