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).