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Title : Geographic Range of the Hooded Skunk, Mephitis macroura

Author : E. Raymond Hall

Walter Woelber Dalquest

Release date : November 13, 2010 [eBook #34311]
Most recently updated: January 7, 2021

Language : English

Credits : Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEOGRAPHIC RANGE OF THE HOODED SKUNK, MEPHITIS MACROURA *** 

  

   
    [575]
   
  

  

   Geographic Range of the Hooded Skunk,
   

   Mephitis macroura, with Description of a
   

   New Subspecies from Mexico
  

  

   
    BY
   
   

   E. RAYMOND HALL and WALTER W. DALQUEST
  

  

   
    University of Kansas Publications
    

    Museum of Natural History
   
   

   

   Volume 1, No. 24, pp. 575-580, 1 figure in text
   

   January 20, 1950
  

  

   University of Kansas
   

   LAWRENCE
   

   1950
  

  

  

   
    [576]
   
  

  

   
    University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History
   
   

   Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Edward H. Taylor,
   

   A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson
   

   

   Volume 1, No. 24, pp. 575-580, 1 figure in text
   

   January 20, 1950
   

   

   
    University of Kansas
   
   

   Lawrence, Kansas
  

  

   
    PRINTED BY
    

    FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER
    

    TOPEKA, KANSAS
    

    1950
   
   

   

   23-1544
  

  

  

   
    [577]
   
  

  

   Geographic Range of the Hooded Skunk, Mephitis
   

   macroura, with Description of a New Subspecies
   

   from Mexico
  

  

   By
  

  

   E. RAYMOND HALL AND WALTER W. DALQUEST
  

  

   The hooded skunk,
   
    Mephitis macroura
   
   Lichtenstein, can be distinguished
from the only other species in the genus,
   
    Mephitis mephitis
   
   Schreber, by the larger tympanic bullae, in the white-backed
color phase by having some black hairs mixed with the white hairs
of the back, and in the black-backed phase by having the two white
stripes widely separated and on the sides of the animal instead of
narrowly separated and on the back of the animal. The starting
point for taxonomic work with
   
    Mephitis
   
   is A. H. Howell's "Revision
of the skunks of the genus Chincha (N. Amer. Fauna, 20, 1901)."
Of the species
   
    Mephitis macroura
   
   , Howell (
   
    op. cit.
   
   ) recognized three
subspecies:
   
    M. m. macroura
   
   ,
   
    M. m. milleri
   
   , and
   
    M. m. vittata
   
   .
  

  

   The species
   
    M. macroura
   
   is restricted to the arid region made up
mostly of the Mexican Plateau. Also, wherever the species occurs
beyond this Plateau, as for example in Guatemala, at San Mateo
del Mar in Oaxaca, in the vicinity of Piedras Negras in Veracruz,
and in southern Arizona, aridity is marked. Whether the species
has a continuous distribution from the southern end of the Mexican
tableland southward to Dueñas in Guatemala is not known but it
is unlikely that the lowland population at San Mateo del Mar on
the Pacific slope of Oaxaca has contact with
   
    M. m. macroura
   
   of the
Mexican Plateau and it is almost certain that the population, which
is here named
   
    M. m. eximius
   
   , from the arid coastal plain of eastern
Mexico in Veracruz, has no connection with the upland population,
   
    M. m. macroura
   
   . The lowest elevation on the eastern slope of the
Plateau from which we have record of the occurrence of this species
is 4,500 feet at Jico. All along the eastern slope of the Plateau,
between the elevations of approximately 2,000 and 4,500 feet, the
belt of lush, dense vegetation of the upper humid division of the
Tropical Life-zone constitutes a barrier to
   
    Mephitis
   
   and tends to
exclude the hooded skunk from the arid territory below the humid
belt. Another kind of skunk,
   
    Conepatus tropicalis
   
   , lives in the
humid belt, at least on the eastern side of the Mexican tableland.
How the population of
   
    Mephitis
   
   , which was sampled by us from
   
    [578]
   
   west and west-northwest of Piedras Negras, arrived there is unknown
but we think that its geographic range is not now connected with
that of the population on the Plateau. The same can be said of the
lowland population at San Mateo del Mar in Oaxaca. There, on the
Pacific slope of the Mexican tableland, the lower humid division of
the Tropical Life-zone probably has tended to restrict the spread
southward and westward of
   
    Mephitis
   
   ; however, on this Pacific slope
the humid belt is less humid and it is less continuous, we think, than
on the Atlantic slope.
  

  

   Four subspecies of
   
    Mephitis macroura
   
   may be recognized. They
are as follows:
  

  

   
    Mephitis macroura milleri
   
   Mearns
  

  

   

    

     1897.
     
      Mephitis milleri
     
     Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 20:467, 1897.
    

    

     1901.
     
      Mephitis macroura milleri
     
     , Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 14:334,
November 12, 1901.
    

   

   

    
     Type locality.
    
    —Fort Lowell, Pima County, Arizona.
   

   

    
     Range.
    
    —Northwestern Mexico and southeastern Arizona. See figure 1.
Marginal occurrences (unless otherwise indicated, after Howell, N. Amer.
Fauna, 20:42, 43, 1901) are:
    
     Arizona
    
    : Santa Catalina Mountains; Tucson;
Fort Lowell.
    
     Chihuahua
    
    : Casas Grandes; Chihuahua (City).
    
     Coahuila
    
    :
La Ventura.
    
     Chihuahua
    
    : Guadalupe y Calvo (mountains near).
    
     Sonora
    
    :
Camoa; Hermosillo; Sierra Cubabi (Burt, Miscl. Publ., Mus. Zool., Univ.
Michigan, 39:30, 1938).
   

   

    
     Characters.
    
    —Long skull (♂ 60 mm, ♀ 56 mm) and large m1.
   

  

  

   
    Mephitis macroura macroura
   
   Lichtenstein
  

  

   

    

     1832.
     
      Mephitis macroura
     
     Lichtenstein, Darstellung Säugethier, pl. 46,
with accompanying text, 1832.
    

   

   

    
     Type locality.
    
    —Mountains northwest of the City of Mexico.
   

   

    
     Range.
    
    —Southern half of Mexican Plateau and south to Guatemala. See
figure 1. Marginal occurrences (all from Howell, N. Amer. Fauna, 20:41, 42,
1901) are:
    
     Tamaulipas
    
    : Jaumave.
    
     Veracruz
    
    : Las Vigas; Jico; Orizaba.
    
     Puebla
    
    : Tehuacan.
    
     Guatemala
    
    : Dueñas (vicinity).
    
     Oaxaca
    
    : 15 mi. W
Oaxaca.
    
     Colima
    
    : Hacienda Magdalena.
    
     Jalisco
    
    : San Sebastian.
    
     Tepic
    
    :
Santa Teresa.
    
     Zacatecas
    
    : Valpariso.
   

   

    
     Characters.
    
    —Skull of medium size (basal length, ♂ 56, ♀ 54); tail averaging
shorter than head and body.
   

  

  

   
    Mephitis macroura vittata
   
   Lichtenstein
  

  

   

    

     1832.
     
      Mephitis vittata
     
     Lichtenstein, Darstellung Säugethier, pl. 47,
with accompanying text, 1832.
    

    

     1901.
     
      Mephitis macroura vittata
     
     , Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.,
14:334, November 12, 1901.
    

   

   

    
     Type locality.
    
    —"San Matteo el Mar" [= San Mateo del Mar], Oaxaca.
   

   

    
     Range.
    
    —Known only from the type locality. See figure 1.
   

   

    
     Characters.
    
    —Skull short (♂ 54.6, ♀ 52.3); narrow across mastoid processes;
tail long; body short.
   

  

  

   
    [579]
   
  

  

   
    Mephitis macroura eximius
   
   new subspecies
  

  

   

    
     Type.
    
    —Female, adult, skin with skull, No. 19272, Mus. Nat. Hist., Univ.
Kansas; 15 kilometers west of Piedras Negras, 300 feet elevation, Veracruz,
Mexico; 13 January 1947; obtained by J. Mazza and Walter W. Dalquest;
original No. 7017, W. W. Dalquest.
   

   

    
     Range.
    
    —From the vicinity of the type locality on the arid coastal plain of
the lowlands of central Veracruz. See figure 1.
   

   

    
     Diagnosis.
    
    —Size small (see measurements); tail long, ranging from 110 to
133 percent of length of head and body; color black, with white areas containing
a few black hairs, and in non-hooded phase with white lateral stripes
low on sides of body and in some specimens almost absent; skull small but
broad across mastoid processes.
   

   

    
     Comparisons.
    
    —From
    
     Mephitis macroura macroura
    
    of the southern part of
the Mexican Plateau,
    
     M. m. eximius
    
    differs in shorter head and body, relatively
(to body) longer tail, and smaller skull. From
    
     Mephitis macroura vittata
    
    of
the tropical lowlands of the Pacific slope of Oaxaca,
    
     M. m. eximius
    
    differs in
slightly larger average size throughout and relatively longer tail.
   

  

  

   Fig. 1.
   
    
     Fig. 1.
    
    Map showing the geographic ranges of the four subspecies of the
species
    
     Mephitis macroura
    
    .
   
  

  

   
    Remarks.
   
   —
   
    M. m. eximius
   
   is regarded as a subspecies of
   
    M. macroura
   
   because there is some overlap in size between larger individuals
of
   
    M. m. eximius
   
   and smaller individuals of
   
    M. m. macroura
   
   .
Actually, as indicated above, we doubt that the geographic ranges
   
    [580]
   
   of the two subspecies are continuous or that the geographic range
of
   
    M. m. eximius
   
   is continuous with the geographic range of
   
    M. m.
vittata
   
   . Small size and relatively long tail characterize both of the
lowland, tropical subspecies,
   
    eximius
   
   and
   
    vittata
   
   , whereas the two
upland subspecies of the temperate areas are larger and have relatively
shorter tails.
  

  

   Habitat closely resembling that at the type locality extends from
the southern base of the first mountains north of Jalapa southward
as far as the north base of the Tuxtla Mountains—a distance of
approximately 110 miles from northwest to southeast along the gulf
coast. None of our 5 skins shows the hooded color-pattern so common
on the Mexican Plateau and in
   
    vittata
   
   of Oaxaca. One of our
five specimens has well-developed lateral stripes; three have greatly
reduced lateral stripes and one is black except for a white spot on
the right hip.
  

  

   

    
     Measurements.
    
    —An adult male (University of Kansas Museum of Natural
History Catalogue Number, 17900), a subadult male (19273), and adult female
(19272, the holotype) and a subadult female (19902), measure, in millimeters,
respectively, as follows: Total length, —, 599, 578, 583; length of tail, —,
319, 335, 305; length of hind foot, 58, 62, 58, 60; basal length of skull, 56.1,
55.0, 52.8, 53.1; basilar length of Hensel, 53.6, 52.6, 50.3, 51.2; greatest zygomatic
breadth, 41.6, 38.0, 39.0, 37.0; greatest mastoid breadth, 34.6, 34.3, 33.3,
31.5; breadth across postorbital processes, 22.2, 20.2, 20.5, 21.0; least interorbital
breadth, 20.3, 18.2, 19.0, 18.5; palatal length, 24.2, 25.1, 24.2, 24.0; postpalatal
length, 31.5, 29.6, 28.8, 29.0; foramen magnum to plane of last molars,
30.8, 29.4, 27.5, 29.0.
   

   

    
     
      Specimens examined.
     
     —Total number, 5, all from Veracruz, Mexico, as follows: Rió
Blanco, 20 km. WNW Piedras Negras, 3; 15 km. W Piedras Negras, 300 ft., 2.
    
   

  

  

   
    University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Lawrence, Kansas.
   
  

  

   
    Transmitted October 31, 1949.
   
  

  

   23-1544