Description of a new pine mouse from Florida

Vol.

XXIX,

pp. 83-84 April4, 1916

PROCEEDINGS

OFTHE

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

DESCRIPTION OF ANEW ^PINE MOUSE FROM FLORIDA.

BY ARTHUR

^H.

HOWELL.

Audubon and Bachman

recorded thepine

mouse from

Florida in 1851,* but

modern

collectors

have

until very recently ^failed to find thespecies in the ^State. Bangs,^{in his}paper

on

Florida

mammals, ^was

^{unable to} give

any

information as to the occur- rence ofthe

animal

there.t

In

November,

1913, Stanley E. _Piper, of the Biological Survey, secured a single

specimen

at Ocala, Florida, the _skull, however, not being preserved,

and

in

December,

1915,

Ray

^T.

Jackson, ^{also of} the Biological Survey, succeeded ⁱⁿ trapping four

more

at the

same

_place.

These

_prove to represent a very distinctform,

which

ishere described.

Pitymys

parvulus ap. nov.

FLORIDA PINE MOUSE.

Type.

—

Adult female, skin and skull. No. 210,485, U. S. National

Museum

(Biological Survey Collection), from Ocala, Florida; ^collected December15, 1915, by^{R. T.} Jackson.

General characters.

—

SimilartoPitymyspinetorum pinetorum, butpaler anddecidedly smaller.

Color.

—

Adult: Upper parts tawny (of Ridgway, 1912), shading on

sides andtailtovinaceous-cinnamon ; under_partsdusky, faintly shaded withvinaceous-cinnamon; feetfleshcolor.

Young

^: Upperparts between fawncolorandwood brown;under_partsdrab withoutcinnamonsuffusion.

Skull.

—

Similartothatofpinetorum but

much

smaller;nasals_relatively shorter; mastoid _portionof bullaemore^inflated.

Measurements.

—

_{Type (adult 9):} total length, 94; ^tail vertebrae, 15;

hindfoot, 14. Skull: basal length, 19.3;lengthof nasals, 5.7; zygomatic

•Quad.N.Am..II,1851, p. 219.

+LandMamm.Penin.Florida,etc.,Proc.BostonSee.Nat. Hist.. Vol. 28.1898,p.182.

17—Proc.Biol. Soc.Wash., Vol.XXIX, ^1910. (83)

81 Proceedings^ofthe Biological Society of Washington.

breadth, 13.2; mastoid _breadth, 11.4; least interorbital breadth, 4.2;

alveolar length ^ofupper molarrow, ^5.1.

Remarks.

—

Considering ^the nearness geographically of this species to Pitymys pinetorum^ofSouthCarolinaandGeorgia, thedifferencesbetween them ^areremarkable. Furthercollecting innorthernFlorida

may

^show

that they intergrade, but ^for the present^itseemsbesttoregardparvulus asadistinct species.

Thehabits ofthis speciesare describedby Mr. Jackson, as follows:

' 'This littlemouseusually^selectsareasthat are covered with adense growth^{of trees}and shrubs,mainly sandpineandscrub oak.

No

_runways were found^intheopenings where^therewere notrees. Theydigburrows ranging from about three-fourthsof an inchto an inch in diameterand running from one^{tofiveorsixinches}belowthesurface. Theserunways weaveinandoutaroundthe rootsof the treesand shrubs (on whichno doubt^themice feed toa great extent) and do not runin astraight line for any distance, probably ^{not over a foot or two.} The ^little animals alsouse themole runways, probably ^aftertheyhave beenabandoned _by the mole. (One^adultspecimen was caught^inamole runway.^{) Several} attempts^tofollowrunways ^{to the nest of the}mousefinally resulted in finding a nest under anold board. It was

made

of palmetto bark and linedwith asilky, fibrousmaterial,

much

^like theinside ofamilk-weed pod. Around ^{the nest} was found the hulls ofabout two hundred _pine seeds."