Spermophilus (Spermophilus) dauricus Brandt 1843

Spermophilus (Spermophilus) dauricus Brandt 1843, Bull. Phys. Math. Acad. Sci. St. Petersbourg, 2: 379.

Type Locality: "...circa Torei lacum exiccatum Dauuriae et ad Onon Bursa rivum." Torei-Nor (Lake), Chitinsk. Obl., Russia.

Vernacular Names: Daurian Ground Squirrel.

Synonyms: Spermophilus (Spermophilus) mongolicus (Milne-Edwards 1867); Spermophilus (Spermophilus) ramosus (Thomas 1909); Spermophilus (Spermophilus) umbratus (Thomas 1908); Spermophilus (Spermophilus) yamashinae (Kuroda 1939) .

Distribution: Transbaikalia (Russia), Mongolia, N China.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Spermophilus (Gromov et al., 1965:244) . Corbet (1978 c:83) tentatively included alashanicus in this species, but see Orlov and Davaa (1975) who provided evidence of specific distinctness. See comment under alashanicus . Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951:506) included dauricus in citellus; but see Gromov et al. (1965:244) who considered dauricus a distinct species. Molecular sequence data suggest a sister species relationship with xanthoprymnus (Harrison et al., 2003) .