Sigmodon (Sigmodon) hispidus Say and Ord 1825

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 1175

Sigmodon (Sigmodon) hispidus Say and Ord 1825

Sigmodon (Sigmodon) hispidus Say and Ord 1825 , J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 42: 354.

Type Locality: USA, Florida, St. Johns River.

Vernacular Names: Hispid Cotton Rat.

Synonyms: Sigmodon (Sigmodon) alfredi Goldman and M. C. Gardner 1947 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) berlandieri Baird 1855 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) confinis Goldman 1918 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) eremicus Mearns 1897 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) exsputus G. M. Allen 1920 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) floridanus A. H. Howell 1943 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) insulicola A. H. Howell 1943 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) komareki M. C. Gardner 1948 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) littoralis Chapman 1889 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) pallidus Mearns 1897 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) solus Hall 1951 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) spadicipygus Bangs 1898 ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) texianus (Audubon and Bachman 1853) ; Sigmodon (Sigmodon) virginianus M. C. Gardner 1946 .

Distribution: SE USA, from S Nebraska to C Virginia and south to SE Arizona and peninsular Florida; NW Chihuahua to N Tamaulipas, south through interior México at least to C Zacatecas and W San Luis Potosí (southern limits with respect to S. mascotensis and S. toltecus need reverification).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt) as S. h. eremicus and S. h. insulicola , otherwise Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Sigmodon , S. hispidus species group. The morphological limits of hispidus , as set forth by Bailey (1902) and expanded by others (Cabrera, 1961; Hall, 1981; Hall and Kelson, 1959; Miller, 1924), were first uncovered as composite by Zimmerman (1970), an insight supported and extended by others (Carleton et al., 1999; Peppers and Bradley, 2000; Severinghaus and Hoffmeister, 1978; Voss, 1992). The much reified definition of S. hispidus corresponds to a species restricted to open landscapes in the SC and SE USA and NC México (see Carleton et al., 1999; Peppers and Bradley, 2000). See comments under S. arizonae , S. hirsutus , S. inopinatus , S. mascotensis , S. peruanus , S. toltecus , and S. zanjonensis , forms formerly ranked as subspecies.

Given the substantial reconstitution of S. hispidus , conventional recognition of subspecies (e.g., Hall, 1981) seems pointless without fresh assessment of geographic variation. Also see remarks by L. Choate (1997) on the subspecies occurring in the Llano Estacado, New Mexico-Texas, by Goetze (1998) for those on the Edwards Plateau, C Texas, and by Whitaker and Hamilton (1998) on SE populations and recognizable subspecies. Aberrant somatic chromosomal variation within local populations and its significance for characterizing interpopulational karyotypic differences discussed by Berend (1993). See Cameron and Spencer (1981, Mammalian Species, 158) .