Geomys Rafinesque, 1817

James L. Patton, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Geomyidae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 469-476 : 469

Geomys Rafinesque, 1817 . Am. Mon. Mag., 2(1):45.

TYPE SPECIES: Geomys pinetis Rafinesque, 1817 .

SYNONYMS: Ascomys Lichtenstein, Diplostoma Rafinesque, Parageomys Hibbard, Pseudostoma Say, Saccophorus Kuhl.

COMMENTS: Revised by Merriam (1895a). Specific boundaries in this genus are poorly defined. Complex relationships have been described for several definable geographic units based on a variety of contact zone analyses that have employed morphological, karyological, allozyme, and/or mitochondrial and nuclear DNA biochemical analyses. These have indicated varying degrees of hybridization between geographically differentiated forms, and authors vary in their recognition of these entities at the specific or subspecific levels. While the rather traditional species ( arenarius , bursarius , personatus , pinetis , and tropicalis ; Hall, 1981) are clearly an inadequate representation of specific diversity in the genus (see Block and Zimmerman, 1991), this arrangement is followed here due to lack of a thorough geographic analysis throughout the range of the genus and a concensus among workers. Keys to the species of Geomys were published by Baker and Williams (1974) and Hall (1981).