Pygeretmus pumilio (Kerr, 1792) . In Linnaeus, Anim. Kingdom, p. 275.

TYPE LOCALITY: Kazakhstan, between Caspian Sea and Irtysh River. Pavlinov and Rossolimo (1987) incorrectly listed Kirghiz Steppe as the type locality for this species .

DISTRIBUTION: From the Don River (Russia) through Kazakhstan to the Irtysh River (Kuznetsov, 1965; Sludskii, 1977), south to NE Iran (Lay, 1967); E to S Mongolia (Bannikov, 1954); China: W Nei Mongol (Ma et al., 1987), N Xinjiang (Ma et al., 1987; Chen and Wang, 1985), and probably Ningxia.

SYNONYMS: acontion, aralensis, dinniki, minor, minutus, pallidus, potanini, pygmaeus, sibericus, tanaiticus, turcomanus (see Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951; and Corbet, 1978c).

COMMENTS: Subgenus Alactagulus (see Pavlinov and Rossolimo, 1987). The name pygmaeus is preoccupied and is an invalid junior synonym of pumilio, (see Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951; and Corbet, 1978c). Reviewed by Ognev (1963b). Detailed habitat data provided by Naumov and Lobachev (1975).