Ellobius talpinus (Pallas, 1770) . Nova Comm. Acad. Sci. Petropoli, 14, 1:568.

TYPE LOCALITY: Russia, W Bank of Volga River, between Kuibyshev (= Samara) and Kostychi .

DISTRIBUTION: Steppes from S Ukraine and Crimea east through Kazakhstan to N of Balkhash Lake, and in Turkmenistan (see Pavlinov and Rossolimo, 1987; Yakimenko and Lyapunova, 1986).

SYNONYMS: ciscaucasicus, murinus, rufescens, tanaiticus, transcaspiae.

COMMENTS: Subgenus Ellobius . Chromosomal polymorphism among samples from the Pamir-Alai Mtns was analyzed by Lyapunova et al. (1980); other chromosomal data summarized and reviewed by Zima and Krâl (1984a). Cytological identification of Turkmenian populations as E. talpinus and comparison with T. tancrei provided by Yakimenko and Lyapunova (1986).