Rhombomys opimus (Lichtenstein, 1823) . Naturh. Abh. Eversmann's Reise, p. 122.

TYPE LOCALITY: U.S. S. R., Kazakhstan, ("between Orenburg and Bokhara") "pre-Aral" Kara-Kum Desert .

DISTRIBUTION: S. Mongolia to Ningsia, Kansu, and Sinkiang (China), Kazakhstan (U.S. S. R.), Iran, Afghanistan, and N. Pakistan.

COMMENT: Reviewed by Kuznetsov, 1944, in Bobrinskii et al., 1965, [Key to the Mammals of the U.S. S. R.], Moscow, p. 325-327, and Gromov and Baranova, 1981: 167; giganteus may be a distinct species. Corbet, 1978:129, included giganteus in opimus, and also gave the type locality as near Bokhara, Uzbekistan.

ISIS NUMBER: 5301410008096001001.