Class Mammalia
Order Rodentia
Family Cricetidae
Subfamily Neotominae
Genus Peromyscus
Peromyscus truei is a big-eared mouse of the Piñon-Juniper Woodland zone. In Arizona, it is limited to the far northern parts, but is widespread in California; it occurs in woodland over most of New Mexico except the west-central and southwestern portion of New Mexico, where it's replaced by P. gratus. Unfortunately, UTEP lacks a sufficient series of the latter to be able to separate that species from other possibilities. However, it appears safe to consider it only for areas west of the Rio Grande Valley. Two specimens from U-Bar Cave are shown as P. truei by discriminant analysis, but can be listed only as P. gratus/truei; either one suggests woodland nearby. Only single specimens occur in the other UTEP localities noted below.
The Blackwater locality P. truei was reported (as cf.) by Slaughter (1975), but since it was provisionally identified by a single first, upper molar, the queried designation by Morgan and Lucas is justified.
Sites.
Early/Early-Mid Wisconsin: Rm Vanishing Floor (Harris 1993c: cf.).
Mid Wisconsin: U-Bar Cave (Harris 1987; UTEP as P. gratus/truei).
Late Wisconsin: Bison Chamber (Harris 1993c: cf.; UTEP); Blackwater Loc. No. 1 (Morgan and Lucas 2005: ?).
Literature. Harris 1987, 1993c; Morgan and Lucas 2005; Slaughter 1975.
Last Update: 15 Jul 2014