Abstract

RAMIREZ-PULIDO, José; CASTILLO-MORALES, Alberto; SALAME-MENDEZ, Arturo  and  CASTRO-CAMPILLO, Alondra. Características morfológicas y morfométricas de cinco especies de Cryptotis (Mammalia: Soricomorpha). Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2004, vol.20, n.2, pp.9-37. ISSN 2448-8445.

Specimens of four monotypic species, Cryptotis mexicana (n = 48), C. obscura (n = 47), C. alticola (n = 8), and C. magna (n = 3), and one polytypic species, C. parva berlandieri (n = 1), C. p. pueblensis (n = 16), and C. p. soricina (n = 84) were examined. Most of the specimens came from the central part of México, with the exception of C. magna, C. obscura, and C. p. berlandieri. Specimens of C. mexicana, C. obscura, and C. magna were collected in cloud forest, those of C. alticola in two different habitats one of Pinus sp. and the other one of Abies sp. forests, and those of C. parva in tropical, subtropical, cloud forest, Quercus sp. and pine-oak forests. Morphometric measurements of 25 external, cranial, and mandibular characters were recorded for each specimen. The species C. alticola, C. magna, and C. parva were distinguished easily; however, measurements of C. mexicana and C. obscura superpose but they could be distinguished by using a Discriminant Analysis. Measurements recorded from specimens of C. magna were greater that for the other four species; those for C. alticola were generally greater than for C. mexicana, C. obscura, or C. parva. Comparison of measurements for specimens of C. p. pueblensis and C. p. soricina indicated that the former subspecies overall is larger. Secondary sexual variation was found only for C. p. soricina, with females larger than males. We report two instances of sympatry between C. obscura and C. parva and one between C. mexicana and C. parva.

Keywords : Soricomorpha; Cryptotis; distribución; taxonomía; México.