666.

Western Puna Mouse

Punomys lemminus

French: Punomys lemming / German: Westliche Puna-Maus / Spanish: Raton de puna occidental

Other common names: Puna Mouse

Taxonomy. Punomys lemminus Osgood, 1943, San Antonio de Esquilache, altitude 15,000 feet (= 4572 m), Puno, Peru.

Punomys lemminusis type species of the genus. Monotypic.

Distribution. High W Andean slope localities in S Peru (Puno, Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna regions).

Descriptive notes. Head-body 139-142 mm, tail 46-61 mm, ear 23-25 mm, hindfoot 28-29 mm. No specific data are available for body weight. The Western Puna Mouse is medium-sized, stoutly built, and vole-like, with long and lax fur, short tail, and relatively small ears. Pelage is without much glossiness and is very long, very soft, and, although dense,still rather loose. Hairs on back are c.18 mm long. Soles of hindfeet are hairy for proximal one-quarter of their lengths, toes are of medium length, and claws are uniformly small. Feet are white; tail sharply bicolored, narrowly dusky above and white below. Females have eight mammae, paired in pectoral, axillary, abdominal, and inguinal positions. Two recognized species of Punomys are very similar in external morphology. Upperparts are pale yellow-gray, strongly contrasting with underparts; tail is shorter than 30% of head-body length.

Habitat. Puna or treeless zone of the higher parts of Peru. The Western Puna Mouse was always encountered among rocks in barren, broken areas near yareta ( Azorella compacta, Apiaceae) and clumps ofits favorite food plants, shrub Senecio adenophylloides and ground rosette herb Werneria digitata (both Asteraceae), and notfar from water.

Food and Feeding. Western Puna Mice fed mostly or entirely on dwarf, fleshy-leaved S. adenophylloides shrub or low rosette herb W. digitata growing in most places. They cut twigs of both plants into lengths as long as 30 cm and stored them under rocks in caches of several dozen twigs. These materials were chewed only slightly when eaten.

Breeding. The Western Puna Mouse breeds during wet season (November-April); a pregnant female with two embryos was caught in early November and a second female was caught in late January with two embryos; three females caught in September and October had no embryos, and no juveniles were collected during those months.

Activity patterns. The Western Puna Mouse is terrestrial. It has been easily observed during the day feeding or scurrying from one rock shelter to another.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. The Western Puna Mouse was neither scarce nor shy at the Peruvian locality of Caccachara.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. The Western Puna Mouse has a very restricted area of occupancy and is known from less than five locations.

Bibliography. Nowak (1991), Osgood (1943b), Pacheco & Patton (1995), Patterson & Zeballos (2008b), Patton (2015a), Pearson (1951a, 1957), Salazar-Bravo, Miralles-Salazar et al. (2011), Salazar-Bravo, Pardinas et al. (2016).