An Annotated Check List of the Mammals of Michoacan, Mexico Part 1

An Annotated Check List of the Mammals of Michoacan, Mexico.

by Bernardo Villa R. and E. Raymond Hall.

INTRODUCTION

When General Lazaro Cardenas was President of the Republic of Mexico, encouragement was given by his administration to linguistic groups of native American peoples to record in printed form, eventually in their native languages, accounts of their cultural accomplishments and accounts of the natural resources of the regions concerned. For the Tarascan "Empire" centering in the state of Michoacan, a committee of Mexicans and citizens of the United States of America was formed to forward these aims. Under the leaders.h.i.+p of ethnologists on the committee, especially Professor Daniel Rubin F. de la Borbolla and Professor Ralph L. Beals, invitations to cooperate in the studies were extended to biologists. One of us (Hall) was invited to investigate the fauna of native wild mammals. In 1943, a.s.sisted by a fellows.h.i.+p which Hall at that time held from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and with support from Miss Annie M. Alexander, through the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, most of March--March 3 to March 29, 1943--was spent in the state of Michoacan.

Bernardo Villa R. of the Inst.i.tuto de Biologia de la Universidad de Mexico was a member of the party from March 23 to 27. Previously, March 4 to 22, Roberto Alcantar from the Universidad de Michoacan, in Morelia, partic.i.p.ated in the field work. Mr. J. R. Alcorn was active in the collecting from the beginning until he entrained for the United States on March 24. The remainder of the field party was made up of E.

Raymond Hall, his wife Mary F. Hall, and their three sons, William Joel, Hubert H., and Benjamin D. Hall.

From March 4 to 15 we collected at, and in the vicinity of, Patzcuaro.

We were housed in two cottages kindly made available by Sr. Efrain Buenrostro, in Campo Turista Janitzio, 200 meters northwest of the railroad station in Colonia Revolucion. The sh.o.r.e of Lake Patzcuaro, the cultivated fields surrounded by stone fences, and the oak and pine forests roundabout provided varied habitats.

From March 16 to 23 we collected in the territory 1 to 6 miles south of Tacambaro, making our headquarters in the Europa Hotel, in the town. The steep main street of Tacambaro with native pines at the upper end descends to plantings of bananas and sugar cane at the lower end. Our collecting all was done below (south of) the town in the semitropical country and none at all was done above (north of) the town.

From March 24 to 27 (three night's trapping) we collected in the vicinity of Zamora, making our headquarters in rooms diagonally across the street intersection from the Hotel Fenix.

The resulting specimens, approximately 650 in number, were deposited in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California at Berkeley.

A noteworthy coincidence is that on the very day, February 26, on which we crossed the international border into Mexico at Laredo, the beginning of the new volcano, Paricutin, was announced in the daily press. Our collecting of mammals in Michoacan was nearly all done in sight of the towering white plume of this rapidly heightening volcanic cone and frequently our traps were thickly dusted with its wind-borne ash. Our eagerness at that time to have stations established for observing the effects on vertebrates of the deposition of ash, was gratified in that Dr. Robert T. Hatt independently had the same idea and such observations at appropriate places and times were begun by him and staff members of the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan. One of us, Villa, was privileged to share in these observations in the spring of 1947.

This continuing interest in the mammals of Michoacan has made it seem, to us, the more desirable to place on record our findings as to kinds and occurrence of species. In doing this we have examined the collections made previously on Cerro Tancitaro and vicinity by the field party led by Mr. Harry Hoogstraal from the University of Illinois and the Chicago Natural History Museum. The specimens of mammals collected by this field party are in the Chicago Natural History Museum and we are obliged to Mr. Karl P. Schmidt, Mr. Colin C.

Sanborn and the late Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood for the privilege of studying this material.

Drs. William H. Burt and Emmet T. Hooper, of the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan, lent to us for examination five specimens of bats, of as many species, which they had taken in Michoacan. Drs.

Remington Kellogg and Henry W. Setzer have provided us with data on specimens of deer and peccary from Michoacan which are in the United States National Museum. Specimens in the Inst.i.tute of Biology of the University of Mexico have been used. Financial provision by the Kansas University Endowment a.s.sociation has enabled us to obtain specimens needed for comparison from other parts of Mexico.

In addition to the materials mentioned above we have used published references to mammals of Michoacan and have prepared the following lists of kinds of mammals positively known to us to occur in the Mexican state of Michoacan. It is noteworthy that specimens recorded in the literature from Acambaro, Michoacan, no longer are to be ascribed to Michoacan, since a relocation of the boundary between the states of Michoacan and Guanajuato, places Acambaro in the latter state.

Our aims were: (1) To record kinds of mammals positively known from the state, under the correct scientific name, and vernacular names in English, Spanish, and Tarascan. The first Tarascan name is given in the spelling used by Tarascans followed by the phonetic equivalent in English in parentheses. (2) To indicate the geographic range of each kind in the state, and, (3) To record miscellaneous information which it is thought probably will be useful in one way or another to other students whose work certainly will lengthen the list of kinds of mammals known from Michoacan and otherwise add to our knowledge of them.

Several kinds of bats, of which we lack records, certainly occur in Michoacan. Four or five kinds of cats (genus _Felis_), species of the genera _Potos_, _Lutra_, _Tayra_, _Grison_, and several other kinds of mammals of which we now lack positive record, also probably occur there; the list of kinds, we expect, will number more than one hundred species and subspecies when more intensive collecting has been done in the state. In all, we have positive record of 85 kinds of native, wild mammals of which specimens have been examined or recorded from Michoacan. Distances and elevations here are recorded either in the metric system or in the English system, according to the system used on the labels of the specimens concerned. Unless otherwise indicated, catalogue numbers of more than 100,000 are of specimens in the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and numbers of less than 100,000 are of the Chicago Natural History Museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1. Map of the state of Michoacan showing place names mentioned in the text.]

ACCOUNTS OF SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES

=Didelphis mesamericana mesamericana= Oken

Opossum; Spanish, Tlacuache; Tarascan, Ujkuri (Ukuri)

_Did[elphys]. mesamericana_ Oken, Lehrbuch d. Naturgesch., pt. 3, 2:1152, 1816, type from northern Mexico.

_Didelphis mesamericana_, Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 16:256, August 18, 1902.

_Range._--Statewide.

_Specimens examined_, 7: nos. 100063-100067, 100074, 51396, distributed by localities as follows: Patzcuaro (3 mi. N, 6,700 ft., 1; 2 mi. W, 6,700 ft., 2; 5 mi. S, 7,800 ft., 1), 4; Tancitaro, 1; 1-3/4 mi. S Tacambaro, 5,700 ft., 1; 1 mi. E and 6 mi. S Tacambaro, 1.

_Remarks._--The coa.r.s.e overhair is white all the way to the base in three specimens but is black in its distal two thirds (white in basal third) in four specimens. The overhair, six centimeters anterior to the base of the tail, is 83 (80-85) mm. long in the three gray specimens (those with white overhair) and 68 (64-72) mm. long in the black specimens. The ears and all four feet are black. The tail is black in its proximal half and white in its distal half except in one specimen in which the distal half is almost as dark as the proximal half. Of the two largest specimens, one is a female from 1-3/4 mi. S Tacambaro and the other, a male is from 6 mi. S of the same place.

Measurements are: Total length, [M] 810, [F] 786; length of tail, [M]

360, [F] 348; length of hind foot, --, 58; condylobasal length, 110.0; 99.6; zygomatic breadth, 68.5; 59.6; length of nasals, 59.7, 45.0. The tail amounts to 48, 48 and 47 per cent of the total length in specimens from Patzcuaro; 50 per cent in one from Tancitaro; 45 and 44 per cent in two from Tacambaro. The subspecies _mesamericana_ probably intergrades with _Didelphis virginiana virginiana_ by way of _D. m.

texensis_ and _D. v. pigra_, as Davis (1944:375) and other writers suggest, in which case the proper name of the subspecies _mesamericana_ would be _Didelphis virginiana mesamericana_. Until intergradation is actually demonstrated, it seems best to use the name _D. m. mesamericana_.

Most of our specimens were caught in steel traps, at meat baits, set for small carnivores.

=Marmosa canescens canescens= (Allen)

Murine Opossum; Spanish, Raton Tlacuache

_Didelphis (Micoureus) canescens_ Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat.

Hist., 5:235, September 22, 1893, type from Santo Domingo de Guzman, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico.

_Marmosa canescens_ Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:58, March 15, 1897.

_Range._--Below _Quercus_ belt, probably throughout western half of state.

_Specimen examined_, 1: no. 100062, 1 mi. E and 6 mi. S Tacambaro, 4,000 ft.

_Remarks._--The one uns.e.xed subadult measures 5.5 mm. from Ml to M3 inclusive, which measurement is near the minimum that Tate (1933: table 1, Sec. 5) records for this subspecies but larger than the maximum that he (_loc. cit._) records for the subspecies _sinaloae_ which occurs to the northward of Michoacan. Tate (_op. cit._:141) lists two other specimens from Los Reyes. Our specimen was caught in a mouse trap set in dry gra.s.s between a sugar cane field and a patch of banana trees.

=Sorex saussurei saussurei= Merriam

Saussure Shrew; Spanish, Musarana

_Sorex saussurei_ Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Was.h.i.+ngton, 7:173, September 29, 1892, type from north slope Sierra Nevada de Colima, approximately 8,000 feet, Jalisco.

_Range._--In and above _Quercus_ belt, probably throughout northeastern half of state.

_Specimens examined_, 14: nos. 8688, 52131-52141, 100076, 100077, distributed by localities as follows: Patzcuaro, 1; 4 mi. S Patzcuaro, 7,800 ft., 2; Mount Tancitaro (7,800 ft., 8; 9,500 ft., 1; 9,600 ft., 1; 10,000 ft., 1), 11.

_Remarks._--Two males from Mount Tancitaro, with much worn teeth, catalogue nos. 52132 and 52138, measure, respectively, as follows: Total length, 122, 114; length of tail, 46, 43; length of hind foot, 15, 14; condylobasal length, 18.4, 18.3; palatal length, 8.0, 7.3; cranial breadth, 9.4, 9.2; least interorbital breadth, 3.7, 3.8; maxillary breadth, 5.5, 5.5; maxillary tooth-row, 6.8, 6.7. The long palate in no. 52132 and the broad brain case in both specimens appear to be only individual variations or possibly variations correlated with the advanced age of the two animals since in other features they do not differ from specimens which are smaller in these two dimensions. Jackson (1928:156) records specimens of this shrew from Mount Patamban and Nahuatzin.

=Cryptotis pergracilis pergracilis= (Elliot)

Short-tailed Shrew; Spanish, Musarana Colicorta

_Blarina pergracilis_ Elliot, Field Columb. Mus., publ. 71, zool. ser., 3:149, February, 1903, type from Ocotlan, Jalisco, Mexico.