1897. _Evotomys wrangeli_ Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington,
11:120, May 13, type from Wrangell, Wrangell Island, Alaska.
When Bailey (_loc. cit._) named the red-backed mouse from Wrangell
Island, Alaska, he characterized it as "A large, dull-colored species
entirely distinct from any known form," and remarked: "In no way does
_E._ [= _Clethrionomys_] _wrangeli_ show a close relationship to any
other American species. In size and relative proportions it comes
closest to _E. dawsoni_, from which it differs widely in coloration and
more widely in cranial characters. With the long-tailed species south
and east of its range there is no need of comparison."
Swarth (Univ. California Publ. Zool., 24:173, June 17, 1922) reported
that three specimens from Flood Glacier and 23 from Great Glacier,
British Columbia, and four from Sergief Island, at the mouth of the
Stikine River, Alaska, were: "All _E. wrangeli_, indistinguishable from
specimens at hand from Wrangell Island." Swarth further reported that,
although he found no intergradation between _Clethrionomys wrangeli_
from Flood Glacier and the nearly adjacent _Clethrionomys rutilus
dawsoni_, "the two species, however, resemble each other so closely in
form, and in some pelages in color also, that _wrangeli_ would seem to
be a coastal offshoot of _dawsoni_...."
Davis (The Recent Mammals of Idaho, The Caxton Printers, p. 306, April
5, 1939) and Orr (Jour. Mamm., 26:69, February 12, 1945) more recently
have shown that _Clethrionomys wrangeli_ is not a member of the
_rutilus_ group (to which _C. dawsoni_ belongs) but is a member of the
_gapperi_ group.
Our comparisons of a series of eight topotypes of _wrangeli_ (all in
the Biological Surveys Collection) with several subspecies of
_Clethrionomys gapperi_ (including _phaeus_, _saturatus_, _galei_,
_brevicaudus_, and others) reveal that the differences seen in
_wrangeli_ are of the kind and degree that serve to separate
subspecies. The red-backed mouse from Wrangell Island, then, should
stand as _Clethrionomys gapperi wrangeli_ (Bailey).
_Specimens examined._--Total, 31, distributed as follows: Alaska:
Wrangell, Wrangell Island, 27 (19 MVZ., 8 USBS); Sergief Island at
mouth of Stikine River, 4 (MVZ).