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Title: Geographic Range of the Hooded Skunk, Mephitis macroura - With Description of a New Subspecies from Mexico
Author: Hall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond), 1902-1986, Dalquest, Walter Woelber, 1917-2000
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Geographic Range of the Hooded Skunk, Mephitis macroura - With Description of a New Subspecies from Mexico" ***
Geographic Range of the Hooded Skunk,
Mephitis macroura, with Description of a
New Subspecies from Mexico
BY
E. RAYMOND HALL and WALTER W. DALQUEST
University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History
Volume 1, No. 24, pp. 575-580, 1 figure in text
January 20, 1950
University of Kansas
LAWRENCE
1950
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Edward H. Taylor,
A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson
Volume 1, No. 24, pp. 575-580, 1 figure in text
January 20, 1950
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Lawrence, Kansas
PRINTED BY
FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1950
23-1544
Geographic Range of the Hooded Skunk, Mephitis
macroura, with Description of a New Subspecies
from Mexico
By
E. RAYMOND HALL AND WALTER W. DALQUEST
The hooded skunk, _Mephitis macroura_ Lichtenstein, can be distinguished
from the only other species in the genus, _Mephitis mephitis_ Schreber,
by the larger tympanic bullae, in the white-backed color phase by having
some black hairs mixed with the white hairs of the back, and in the
black-backed phase by having the two white stripes widely separated and
on the sides of the animal instead of narrowly separated and on the back
of the animal. The starting point for taxonomic work with _Mephitis_ is
A. H. Howell's "Revision of the skunks of the genus Chincha (N. Amer.
Fauna, 20, 1901)." Of the species _Mephitis macroura_, Howell (_op.
cit._) recognized three subspecies: _M. m. macroura_, _M. m. milleri_,
and _M. m. vittata_.
The species _M. macroura_ is restricted to the arid region made up
mostly of the Mexican Plateau. Also, wherever the species occurs beyond
this Plateau, as for example in Guatemala, at San Mateo del Mar in
Oaxaca, in the vicinity of Piedras Negras in Veracruz, and in southern
Arizona, aridity is marked. Whether the species has a continuous
distribution from the southern end of the Mexican tableland southward to
Dueñas in Guatemala is not known but it is unlikely that the lowland
population at San Mateo del Mar on the Pacific slope of Oaxaca has
contact with _M. m. macroura_ of the Mexican Plateau and it is almost
certain that the population, which is here named _M. m. eximius_, from
the arid coastal plain of eastern Mexico in Veracruz, has no connection
with the upland population, _M. m. macroura_. The lowest elevation on
the eastern slope of the Plateau from which we have record of the
occurrence of this species is 4,500 feet at Jico. All along the eastern
slope of the Plateau, between the elevations of approximately 2,000 and
4,500 feet, the belt of lush, dense vegetation of the upper humid
division of the Tropical Life-zone constitutes a barrier to _Mephitis_
and tends to exclude the hooded skunk from the arid territory below the
humid belt. Another kind of skunk, _Conepatus tropicalis_, lives in the
humid belt, at least on the eastern side of the Mexican tableland. How
the population of _Mephitis_, which was sampled by us from west and
west-northwest of Piedras Negras, arrived there is unknown but we think
that its geographic range is not now connected with that of the
population on the Plateau. The same can be said of the lowland
population at San Mateo del Mar in Oaxaca. There, on the Pacific slope
of the Mexican tableland, the lower humid division of the Tropical
Life-zone probably has tended to restrict the spread southward and
westward of _Mephitis_; however, on this Pacific slope the humid belt is
less humid and it is less continuous, we think, than on the Atlantic
slope.
Four subspecies of _Mephitis macroura_ may be recognized. They are as
follows:
#Mephitis macroura milleri# Mearns
1897. _Mephitis milleri_ Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.,
20:467, 1897.
1901. _Mephitis macroura milleri_, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat.
Hist., 14:334, November 12, 1901.
_Type locality._--Fort Lowell, Pima County, Arizona.
_Range._--Northwestern Mexico and southeastern Arizona. See
figure 1. Marginal occurrences (unless otherwise indicated,
after Howell, N. Amer. Fauna, 20:42, 43, 1901) are: _Arizona_:
Santa Catalina Mountains; Tucson; Fort Lowell. _Chihuahua_:
Casas Grandes; Chihuahua (City). _Coahuila_: La Ventura.
_Chihuahua_: Guadalupe y Calvo (mountains near). _Sonora_:
Camoa; Hermosillo; Sierra Cubabi (Burt, Miscl. Publ., Mus.
Zool., Univ. Michigan, 39:30, 1938).
_Characters._--Long skull ([Male] 60 mm, [Female] 56 mm) and
large m1.
#Mephitis macroura macroura# Lichtenstein
1832. _Mephitis macroura_ Lichtenstein, Darstellung
Säugethier, pl. 46, with accompanying text, 1832.
_Type locality._--Mountains northwest of the City of Mexico.
_Range._--Southern half of Mexican Plateau and south to
Guatemala. See figure 1. Marginal occurrences (all from Howell,
N. Amer. Fauna, 20:41, 42, 1901) are: _Tamaulipas_: Jaumave.
_Veracruz_: Las Vigas; Jico; Orizaba. _Puebla_: Tehuacan.
_Guatemala_: Dueñas (vicinity). _Oaxaca_: 15 mi. W Oaxaca.
_Colima_: Hacienda Magdalena. _Jalisco_: San Sebastian. _Tepic_:
Santa Teresa. _Zacatecas_: Valpariso.
_Characters._--Skull of medium size (basal length, [Male] 56,
[Female] 54); tail averaging shorter than head and body.
#Mephitis macroura vittata# Lichtenstein
1832. _Mephitis vittata_ Lichtenstein, Darstellung
Säugethier, pl. 47, with accompanying text, 1832.
1901. _Mephitis macroura vittata_, Allen, Bull. Amer.
Mus. Nat. Hist., 14:334, November 12, 1901.
_Type locality._--"San Matteo el Mar" [= San Mateo del Mar],
Oaxaca.
_Range._--Known only from the type locality. See figure 1.
_Characters._--Skull short ([Male] 54.6, [Female] 52.3); narrow
across mastoid processes; tail long; body short.
#Mephitis macroura eximius# new subspecies
_Type._--Female, adult, skin with skull, No. 19272, Mus. Nat.
Hist., Univ. Kansas; 15 kilometers west of Piedras Negras, 300
feet elevation, Veracruz, Mexico; 13 January 1947; obtained by
J. Mazza and Walter W. Dalquest; original No. 7017, W. W.
Dalquest.
_Range._--From the vicinity of the type locality on the arid
coastal plain of the lowlands of central Veracruz. See figure 1.
_Diagnosis._--Size small (see measurements); tail long, ranging
from 110 to 133 percent of length of head and body; color black,
with white areas containing a few black hairs, and in non-hooded
phase with white lateral stripes low on sides of body and in
some specimens almost absent; skull small but broad across
mastoid processes.
_Comparisons._--From _Mephitis macroura macroura_ of the
southern part of the Mexican Plateau, _M. m. eximius_ differs in
shorter head and body, relatively (to body) longer tail, and
smaller skull. From _Mephitis macroura vittata_ of the tropical
lowlands of the Pacific slope of Oaxaca, _M. m. eximius_ differs
in slightly larger average size throughout and relatively longer
tail.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. Map showing the geographic ranges of the
four subspecies of the species _Mephitis macroura_.]
_Remarks._--_M. m. eximius_ is regarded as a subspecies of _M. macroura_
because there is some overlap in size between larger individuals of _M.
m. eximius_ and smaller individuals of _M. m. macroura_. Actually, as
indicated above, we doubt that the geographic ranges of the two
subspecies are continuous or that the geographic range of _M. m.
eximius_ is continuous with the geographic range of _M. m. vittata_.
Small size and relatively long tail characterize both of the lowland,
tropical subspecies, _eximius_ and _vittata_, whereas the two upland
subspecies of the temperate areas are larger and have relatively shorter
tails.
Habitat closely resembling that at the type locality extends from the
southern base of the first mountains north of Jalapa southward as far as
the north base of the Tuxtla Mountains--a distance of approximately 110
miles from northwest to southeast along the gulf coast. None of our 5
skins shows the hooded color-pattern so common on the Mexican Plateau
and in _vittata_ of Oaxaca. One of our five specimens has well-developed
lateral stripes; three have greatly reduced lateral stripes and one is
black except for a white spot on the right hip.
_Measurements._--An adult male (University of Kansas Museum of
Natural History Catalogue Number, 17900), a subadult male
(19273), and adult female (19272, the holotype) and a subadult
female (19902), measure, in millimeters, respectively, as
follows: Total length, --, 599, 578, 583; length of tail, --,
319, 335, 305; length of hind foot, 58, 62, 58, 60; basal length
of skull, 56.1, 55.0, 52.8, 53.1; basilar length of Hensel,
53.6, 52.6, 50.3, 51.2; greatest zygomatic breadth, 41.6, 38.0,
39.0, 37.0; greatest mastoid breadth, 34.6, 34.3, 33.3, 31.5;
breadth across postorbital processes, 22.2, 20.2, 20.5, 21.0;
least interorbital breadth, 20.3, 18.2, 19.0, 18.5; palatal
length, 24.2, 25.1, 24.2, 24.0; postpalatal length, 31.5,
29.6, 28.8, 29.0; foramen magnum to plane of last molars, 30.8,
29.4, 27.5, 29.0.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 5, all from Veracruz,
Mexico, as follows: Rió Blanco, 20 km. WNW Piedras Negras, 3;
15 km. W Piedras Negras, 300 ft., 2.
_University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Lawrence, Kansas._
_Transmitted October 31, 1949._
23-1544
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