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Mammals from Tamaulipas, Mexico

ROLLIN H. BAKER

University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History

Volume 5, No. 12, pp. 207-218 December 15, 1951

University of Kansas LAWRENCE 1951

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Edward H. Taylor, Robert W. Wilson

Volume 5, No. 12, pp. 207-218 December 15, 1951

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1951

23-8338

Mammals from Tamaulipas, Mexico

ROLLIN H. BAKER

Forming the northeastern border of Mexico, Tamaulipas extends in an elongated, north-south direction from the Temperate into the Torrid Zone and contains faunal elements from both the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. The mammals are less known than those from some of the bordering states; for the most part collecting has been limited to a few localities, chiefly along the Pan-American Highway. Accordingly, as a step towards a long-range study of the mammals of Tamaulipas, the Museum of Natural History of the University of Kansas acquired from William J. Schaldach, Jr., a small, but significant, collection of mammals taken in the last month of 1949 and the first four months of 1950.

Collections were made at several places in the vicinity of Ciudad Victoria, including localities along the humid, eastern face of the Sierra Madre Oriental. Many of these specimens were obtained near camps made west of the village of El Carrizo. This small community is on the Pan-American highway, 70 kilometers (by highway) south of Ciudad Victoria. The resulting collections, which are reported upon here, disclose that several tropical mammals range farther northward than previously reported. Funds for financing the field work were made available by a grant from the Kansas University Endowment Association.

ACCOUNTS OF SPECIES

~Didelphis mesamericana mesamericana~ Oken

Central American Opossum

Did[elphys] mes-americana Oken, Lehrbuch d. Naturgesch., pt. 3, vol. 2:1152, 1816. (Type from Northern Mexico.)

Didelphis mes-americana Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 16:256, August 18, 1902.

Specimens examined, 2 as follows: 36 km. N and 10 km. W Ciudad Victoria, 1 km. E El Barretal, on Río Purificacíon, 1; 12 km. N and 4 km. W Ciudad Victoria, 1.

~Philander opossum pallidus~ (Allen)

Four-eyed Opossum

Metachirus fuscogriseus pallidus Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 14:215, July 3, 1901. (Type from Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico.)

Philander opossum pallidus Dalquest, Occ. Papers Mus. Zool., Louisiana State Univ., No. 23:2, July 10, 1950.

Specimens examined, 3 from 70 km. [by highway] S Ciudad Victoria and 2 km. W El Carrizo.

Remarks.--These three specimens have proportionately longer tails than typical P. o. pallidus from central Veracruz; total length and length of tail of two adult males are 575, 295, and 568, 290 respectively.