Spermophilus pygmaeus (Pallas, 1778)

Robert S. Hoffmann & Charles G. Anderson, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 419-465 : 448

Spermophilus pygmaeus (Pallas, 1778) . Nova Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord., p. 122.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Maximos et paene dixerim monstrosos Citillós passim ad inferiorum laikum in campis squalidis." Restricted by Ognev (1963a: 102) to "lower reaches of the Ural River" "Indersk" [ Kazakhstan] .

DISTRIBUTION: SW Ukraine; S Ural Mtns to Crimea ( Russia); Kazakhstan; NW Uzbekistan; Dagestan ( Georgia).

SYNONYMS: atricapilla (Orlov, 1927); binominatus ( Ellerman, 1940); brauneri (Martino, 1914); ellermani (Harris, 1944); flavescens (Pallas, 1779); herbicola (Martino, 1914); kalabuchovi (Ognev, 1937); kazakstanicus (Goodwin, 1935); mugosaricus (Lichtenstein, 1823); nikolskii ( Heptner, 1934); orlovi ( Ellerman, 1940); pallidus (Orlov and Fenyuk, 1927); planicola (Satunin, 1909); satunini (Sveridenko, 1922); septentrionalis (Obolenskii, 1927).

COMMENTS: Subgenus Spermophilus , see Gromov et al. (1965:257) and comment under musicus . Hybridizes rarely with erythrogenys , fulvus , and major ( Bazhanov 1944; Denisov, 1964); hybridizes extensively with suslicus in zone of contact SW of Saratov ( Russia) ( Denisov and Smirnova, 1976).