698.

Short-tailed Vesper Mouse

Calomys miurus

French: Calomys du Junin / German: Kurzschwanz-Vespermaus / Spanish: Raton laucha de cola corta

Taxonomy. Hesperomys frida miurus Thomas, 1926, “Yano Mayo,” 8500 ft (= 2591 m), Tarma River, Junin, Peru.

Calomys miurus was in the synonymy of C. sorella until H. Zeballos and colleagues in 2014 elevated it to a valid species. Monotypic.

Distribution. Andes in WC Peru.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 69-98 mm, tail 42-80 mm, ear 13-21-3 mm, hindfoot 11-22 mm; weight 11-1-28 g. Dorsum of the Short-tailed Vesper Mouse is chamois to isabella (pale gray-yellow), with very few dark hairs (absent in most specimens); venteris whitish; ears are honey-yellow to chamois; hindfeet are olive-buff; and tail is bicolored, drab dorsally and olive-buff ventrally.

Habitat. Pluvial montane subtropical forest at elevations up to 4100 m.

Food and Feeding. The Short-tailed Vesper Mouse is omnivorous, with little seasonal dietary differences in presence or absence of arthropods, plant remains, or mycorhizal spores, but significant differences in occurrence of intact seeds.

Breeding. Lactating Short-tailed Vesper Mice were reported in May and August and pregnant females in July-August.

Activity patterns. No information.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Not assessed on The IUCN Red List, where itis still considered a synonymy of C. sorella .

Bibliography. Hershkovitz (1962), Olds (1988), Pacheco et al. (2007), Pearson & Patton (1976), Sahley et al. (2015), Salazar-Bravo (2015¢), Salazar-Bravo et al. (2013), Steppan (1995), Zeballos et al. (2014).