1915. _Geomys personatus tropicalis_ Goldman, Proc. Biol.
Soc. Washington, 28:134, June 29, type from Altamira,
Tamaulipas.
_Distribution in Tamaulipas._--Known only from vicinity of
type locality, in southeastern part of state.
_Geomys tropicalis_ was named as a subspecies of _G. personatus_ in
1915 by E. A. Goldman. To my knowledge, no one other than Goldman has
critically studied specimens of this pocket gopher, nor have specimens
other than those listed in the original description been reported up to
now. In 1953, Gerd H. Heinrich collected a series of 19 individuals one
mile south of Altamira. These specimens were compared (by E. R. Hall in
March, 1962) with the holotype and paratypes of _G. p. tropicalis_ and
were found to be indistinguishable.
Careful comparisons of the specimens from one mile south of Altamira
with topotypes of _G. personatus personatus_ (and specimens of other
subspecies) indicate that _tropicalis_ differs from _personatus_ in a
number of important characters, some of which _tropicalis_ shares with
_Geomys arenarius_ of the Rio Grande Valley and adjacent areas in
Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua (see Table 2).