Eligmodontia
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| iSilky Desert Mice |
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Eligmodontia hirtipes |
The genus Eligmodontia consists of five species of South American desert mice restricted to Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Species of Eligmodontia occur in arid and semiarid habitats and in both high and low elevation areas.
The genus receives its name from the occlusal pattern of the molars and is derived from the Greek "eligma" meaning curving or winding and "odont" meaning tooth. Silky desert mice can be found along the eastern side of the Andes Mountains, in Patagonia, and in the Chaco thorn forest of South America.
Eligmodontia belongs to the subfamily Sigmodontinae and the tribe Phyllotini. The taxonomy of Eligmodontia has been complicated. Seven species of Eligmodontia have been described (three containing 2 subspecies each). In a 1962 revision of the tribe Phyllotini, Philip Hershkovitz synonymized all 10 named forms of Eligmodontia into a single species with two subspecies. A northern form was known as Eligmodontia typus puerulus, and a southern form was known as E. typus typus. For nearly 30 years, Hershkovitz's taxonomy was followed until karyotypes and molecular data became available. Today, five distinct karyotypes have been described, and five species-level clades have been found.
The following five species are now classified in the genus. Note that Eligmodontia hirtipes has recently been reelevated to species status and a universal common name has not been designated.
- Eligmodontia hirtipes
- Eligmodontia moreni Monte Laucha
- Eligmodontia morgani Western Patagonian Laucha
- Eligmodontia puerulus Altiplano Laucha
- Eligmodontia typus Eastern Patagonian Laucha
The first specimen of Eligmodontia was collected by Charles Darwin in 1835 during his five-year journey on the HMS Beagle. It was formally described by George Waterhouse as Mus elegans in 1837 just months after the formal description of E. typus by Frédéric Cuvier which had been collected six months after Darwin's specimen. The two were later synonymized and represent the same species.
Members of Eligmodontia are also sometimes referred to as gerbil mice or silky-footed mice; they are also known by Chilean and Argentine common names.
[edit] References
- Cuvier, M. F. 1837. Du genre Eligmodonte et de l'Eligmodonte de Buenos-Ayres Eligmodontia typus. Annales des Sciences Naturalles, ser. 2, no. 7:168-171.
- Hershkovitz, P. 1962. Evolution of the Neotropical cricetine rodents (Muridae) with special reference to the phyllotine group. Fieldiana: Zoology 46:1-524.
- Hillyard, Jeanna R., C. J. Phillips, E. C. Birney, J. A. Monjeau, and R. S. Sikes. 1997. Mitochondrial DNA analysis and zoogeography of two species of silky desert mice, Eligmodontia, in Patagonia. Zietschrift für Säugetierkunde 62:281—292.
- Lanzone, C. and R. A. Ojeda. 2005. Citotaxonomía y distribución del género Eligmodontia (Rodentia, Cricetidae, Sigmodontinae). Mastozoología Neotropical 12:73-77.
- Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder (Eds.). 2005. Mammal Species of the World, Third Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. 2 Volumes, 2141 pp.
- Waterhouse, G. R. 1837. Characters of new species of the genus Mus, from the collection of Mr. Darwin. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1837:15-21, 27-29.
