Mustela eversmannii Lesson, 1827 . Manuel de Mammalogie, p. 144.

TYPE LOCALITY: "trouvé...entre Orembourg et Bukkara," restricted by Stroganov (1962:338) to "basseinu sredneyo techeniya r. Ileka, ...r. Bol'shoi Khobdy" [Russia, Orenburg Obi., S of Orenburg, mouth of Khobda River, a tributary of Ilek River.]

DISTRIBUTION: Steppes and subdeserts of E Europe, and republics of the former USSR; Mongolia; W, C and NE China.

SYNONYMS: larvatus Hodgson, 1849; lineiventer Hollister, 1913; tiarata Hollister, 1913.

COMMENTS: Reviewed by Rostro (1948), Heptner (in Heptner and Naumov, 1967), and Anderson (1977). Youngman (1982) placed eversmannii in the subgenus Putorius . Anderson (1977) and Kurtén and Anderson (1980) suggested that nigripes and eversmannii may be conspecific. Pocock (1936b) and Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1966) considered eversmannii and putorius conspecific; however, Ognev (1931), Stroganov (1962), and Heptner (in Heptner and Naumov, 1967), recognized them as distinct species.