Chaetodipus eremicus Mearns 1898

Chaetodipus eremicus Mearns 1898, Bull. Am. Mus . Nat. Hist., 10: 300.

Type Locality: USA, Texas, El Paso [now in Hudspeth] Co., Fort Hancock.

Vernacular Names: Chihuahuan Pocket Mouse.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Chaetodipus eremicus subsp. eremicus Mearns 1898

Subspecies Chaetodipus eremicus subsp. atrodorsalis Dalquest 1951

Distribution: Chihuahuan Desert from S New Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas (USA) through Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, Nuevo Leon, and San Luis Potosi (Mexico).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as included in C. penicillatus .

Discussion: Hoffmeister and Lee (1967), Hall (1981), Patton (1993 b), and Williams et al. (1993) considered both eremicus and atrodorsalis subspecies of C. penicillatus . Lee et al. (1996) elevated eremicus to species status, with atrodorsalis a subspecies, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence divergence and the previously recognized sharply divergent karyotypes (Patton, 1969 a) and allozyme differences (Patton et al., 1981).