Subspeciation in Pocket Gophers of Kansas, [KU. Vol. 1 No. 11]

Subspeciation in Pocket Gophers of Kansas
By BERNARDO VILLA-R. and E. RAYMOND HALL
University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History
Volume 1, No. 11. pp. 217-236 November 29, 1947
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1947
University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, H. H. Lane, and Edward H. Taylor Volume 1, No 11. pp. 217-236 Published November 29, 1947
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
PRINTED BY FRED VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1947
21-8188
BERNARDO VILLA-R. AND E. RAYMOND HALL
Several full species of the genus Geomys have been recorded from Kansas. The purpose of the study now reported upon was to determine the present taxonomic status of these animals and the distribution of each within the boundaries of Kansas. No pocket gopher of any kind has been reported from the southeastern part of the state; in all other parts Geomys is locally common.
The first published reference that we have found to pocket gophers of Kansas is Prof. Spencer F. Baird's (1857:377, 380) mention of two specimens from Fort Riley. One he identified as Geomys bursarius (p. 377) and the other (p. 380) he doubtfully referred to Geomys breviceps . Both specimens were obtained by Dr. W. A. Hammond. J. A. Allen (1874:49) reported pocket gophers from Kansas under the generic name Geomys? . Professor M. V. B. Knox (1875:21) published a list of Kansas mammals in which he used the names Geomys bursarius Shaw and Geomys breviceps Baird, the last one for the specimen taken by Dr. Hammond, at Fort Riley. Baker (1889:57) employed the name Geomys bursarius Rich. for the gopher found along the hundredth meridian, between N latitude 38° 30' and 39° 30'. He reported this animal as common in western Kansas. Merriam (1895:129) recorded G. bursarius and G. lutescens from Kansas. Allen (1895:265) recorded five specimens of Geomys lutescens collected between September 16 and October 13 at Long Island, Phillips County, Kansas, by W. W. Granger. Since that time several papers, some of them dealing mostly with habits of pocket gophers, have been published in which reference is made to Geomys in Kansas. Hibbard (1933:240) recognized three species: G. bursarius , G. lutescens , and G. breviceps llanensis . In 1944 (74-75) he recorded Cratogeomys from Meade County, on the basis of two skulls dug out of the ground, and he recognized the same three full species of the genus Geomys that he did in 1933, along with two additional subspecies.