Sylvilagus (Sylvilagus) floridanus holzneri (Mearns 1896)

Sylvilagus floridanus holzneri (Mearns)

Lepus sylvaticus holzneri Mearns, 1896:554.

Sylvilagus (Sylvilagus) floridanus holzneri.—Lyon, 1904:336.

[Lepus sylvaticus] subspecies rigidus Mearns, 1896:555. [Type from Carrizalillo, Luna Co., New Mexico. Holotype examined.]

Lepus (Sylvilagus) durangae J. A. Allen, 1903:609. [Type from Rancho Bailon, northwestern Durango, Mexico. Holotype examined.]

TYPE.—USNM 58937, adult, female, skin and skull, from the Douglas spruce (=Douglas fir) zone near the summit of the Huachuca Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona. Holotype examined.

RANGE.—Mountains of the southwestern United States southward along the Sierra Madre Occidental of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Durango. Marginal records in Durango and Sinaloa are: DURANGO: Inde, 1830 m, 6.4 km NW La Pila; 45.1 km S, 27.4 km W Vicente Guerrero, 2545 m. SINALOA: Plomosas, 22 km E Matatan, 760 m; San Ignacio, 215 m; 2.4 km N Badiraguato, 230 m; 16 km NNE Choix, 520 m.

DIAGNOSIS.—Externally: medium-sized to large with long ears. Skull: medium-sized to large in all features except small in rostrum depth, short and narrow maxillary and mandibular toothrows, and shallow mandible, but with large auditory bullae. Color: grayish dorsally, pale ochraceous buff laterally, pale gray rump patch, and creamy white ventrally except for a dusky neck patch.

COMPARISONS.—For comparisons with S. f. macrocorpus see that subspecies. Sylvilagus f. holzneri differs from S. f. orizabae: externally, larger size and longer ear; cranially, larger skull particularly evident in greatest skull length and bullar length; and color, pale grayish dorsally rather than dark grayish.