Ctenomys fulvus Philippi 1860

Ctenomys fulvus Philippi 1860, Reise Wuste Atacama: 157.

Type Locality: Chile, Antofagasta Prov., Pingo-Pingo.

Vernacular Names: Tawny Tuco-tuco.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Ctenomys fulvus subsp. fulvus Philippi 1860

Subspecies Ctenomys fulvus subsp. robustus Philippi 1896

Distribution: Mountains and Monte desert of NW Argentina and N Chile.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Includes robustus, a Rassenkreis subspecies restricted to the oasis of Pica in Tarapaca Prov., Chile (Mann, 1978:292). Cabrera (1961) and Woods (1993) included coludo, famosus, johannis, and tulduco; but Contreras et al. (1977) considered these forms provisionally distinct and Galliari et al. (1996) indicated a lack of data to support change from specific status. Nowak (1999) considered johannis and robustus as distinct species. Karyotype has 2n=26 and FN=48 (Gallardo, 1991), but see Redford and Eisenberg (1992) who reported karyotypes of 2n=26; FN=52 for C. f. fulvus and 2n=25; FN=52 for C. f. robustus. Gallardo (1991) noted that the C-band pattern of robustus differs from that of fulvus but Gallardo and Palma (1992) found little genetic divergence between these two subspecies based upon protein electrophoresis.