Cynomys Rafinesque, 1817 . Am. Mon. Mag., 2:43.

TYPE SPECIES: Cynomys socialis Rafinesque, 1817 (= Arctomys ludoviciana Ord, 1815).

SYNONYMS: Arctomys Ord, 1815; Cynomomus Osborn, 1894; Leucocrossuromys Hollister, 1916; Mamcynomiscus Herrera, 1899; Monax Warden, 1819 .

COMMENTS: Tribe Cynomyini (Gromov et al., 1965) or Marmotini . Revised by Pizzimenti (1975). Clark et al. (1971) published a key to the genus. Includes Cynomys and Leucocrossuromys as subgenera. Relationships of Cynomys to other ground squirrels are unclear. While generally regarded as monophyletic, and a sister-group to North American Spermophilus, recent evidence suggests that Cynomys may be most closely related to subgenus Spermophilus, making genus Spermophilus paraphyletic (Hafner, 1984:17).