Spermophilus fulvus (Lichtenstein, 1823) . Naturh. Abh. Eversmann's Reise, p. 119.

TYPE LOCALITY: "near the Kuvandzhur River, east of Mugodzhary Mountains, north of Aral Sea" [Kazakhstan] (Ognev, 1963a:29) .

DISTRIBUTION: Kazakhstan, from the Caspian Sea and the Volga River to Lake Balkash; south through Uzbekistan, W Tadzhikistan and Turkmenistan to NE Iran, and N Afghanistan; W Xinjiang (China).

SYNONYMS: concolor (Fischer, 1829); concolor I. Geoffroy, 1831; giganteus (Fischer, 1829); hypoleucos (Satunin, 1909); maximus (Pallas, 1778); nanus (Fischer, 1829); nigrimontanus (Antipin, 1942); orlovi (Ognev, 1937); oxianus (Thomas, 1915); parthianus (Thomas, 1915).

COMMENTS: Subgenus Colobotis according to Gromov et al. (1965:276), but see Hall (1981:381) who included Colobotis in subgenus Spermophilus . See also major .