Spermophilus major (Pallas, 1778) . Nova Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord., p. 125.

TYPE LOCALITY: U.S. S. R., R.S.F.S. R., Kuibyshevsk. Obi., near Kuibyshev (=Samara) .

DISTRIBUTION: Steppe between Volga and Irtysh Rivers (U.S. S.R.).

COMMENT: Subgenus Colobotis; see Gromov et al., 1965:290. Hall, 1981:381, included Colobotis in subgenus Spermophilus . Occasionally hybridizes with erythrogenys and fulvus; see Denisov, 1963, Zool. Zh., 42: 1887-1899, and Ognev, 1947, [Mamm. U.S. S. R., Adjac. Count.], Acad. Sci. Moscow, p. 24. Corbet, 1978:84, provisionally included erythrogenys and brevicauda in this species, but Gromov et al., 1965:290, Vorontsov and Lyapunova, 1970, Byull. Mosk. Ova. Ispyt. Prir. Otd. Biol., 75: 122- 136, and 1976, pp. 337-353, in Beringia in Cenozoic, V. Kontrimavichus, ed., Acad. Sci., Vladivostok, considered erythrogenys a distinct species, and Gromov et al., 1965:315, included brevicauda in erythrogenys; see comment under erythrogenys .

ISIS NUMBER: 5301410002032014001.