Spermophilus major (Pallas, 1778)

Robert S. Hoffmann & Charles G. Anderson, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 419-465 : 447

Spermophilus major (Pallas, 1778) . Nova Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord., p. 125.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Steppe near Samara," [Kuibyshev, Kuibyshevsk. Obi., Russia] ( Ognev, 1963a:34) .

DISTRIBUTION: Steppe between Volga and Irtysh rivers ( Russia; N Kazakhstan). Formerly, steppe between Don and Volga rivers ( Russia; Gromov et al., 1965:291).

SYNONYMS: argyropuloi (Bazhanov, 1947); heptneri (Vasil'eva, 1964); rufescens ( Keyserling and Blasius, 1840); ungae (Martino, 1923).

COMMENTS: Subgenus Colobotis according to Gromov et al. (1965:290), but see Hall (1981:381) who included Colobotis in subgenus Spermophilus . Occasionally hybridizes with erythrogenys and fulvus ( Denisov, 1963; Ognev, 1947). Corbet (1978c:84) provisionally included erythrogenys and brevicauda in this species, but Gromov et al. (1965:290) and Vorontsov and Lyapunova (1970) considered erythrogenys a distinct species, and Gromov et al. (1965:315) included brevicauda in erythrogenys ; see comment under erythrogenys .