Systematics of the Northern Grasshopper Mouse (Onychomys leucogaster) on the Central Great Plains

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Abstract
This assessment of the systematic relationships of populations of the northern grasshopper mouse, Onychomys leucogaster, on the central Great Plains is based on study of molts and pelages and on analyses of measurements. Variation in color of a population of O. leucogaster on the central plains reflects differences in three developmental pelages, with two intervening, maturational molts, and one annual molt and pelage. Geographic variation in color of pelage is clinal, the dorsum gradually shifting from pale on the western plains to dark in the east. Variation in mensural characters is slight and not entirely coincident with that of pelage. Two nominal subspecies of O. leucogaster, O. l. arcticeps Rhoads to the west and O. l. breviauritus Hollister to the east, have been recognized on the central Great Plains. We regard these taxa as indistinguishable; the name O. l. arcticeps has priority.