Myodes californicus Merriam 1890

Myodes californicus Merriam 1890, N. Amer. Fauna, 4: 26.

Type Locality: USA, California, Humboldt Co., Eureka.

Vernacular Names: Western Red-backed Vole.

Synonyms: Myodes obscurus (Merriam 1897) .

Distribution: Coastal coniferous forest from the Columbia River south through W Oregon (Verts and Carraway, 1998:Fig. 11-97) to NW California, USA.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc) as Clethrionomys californicus .

Discussion: The name occidentalis was formerly applied to this species (e.g., Hall and Cockrum, 1953), but populations north of the Columbia River, which include occidentalis and caurinus, have been reassigned to M. gapperi (Cowan and Guiguet, 1965; Johnson and Ostenson, 1959). See Alexander and Verts, 1992 (Mammalian Species, 406).