PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON ll3(l):319-333. 2000. Status of the name Odocoileus hemionus crooki (Mammalia: Cervidae) James R. Heffelfinger Arizona Game and Fish Department, 555 N. Greasewood Road, Tucson, Arizona 85745, U.S.A. Abstract. — The present name of the desert mule deer {Odocoileus hemionus crooki) is based on a specimen collected in southwestern New Mexico near the Mexican border. This specimen was originally described as a new species (Dorcelaphus crooki) of black-tailed deer, not as a mule deer, because many of its characteristics are intermediate between mule deer and white-tailed deer. In the same publication, Dorcelaphus hemionus eremicus is described from western Sonora, Mexico, as a new subspecies of desert mule deer. A number of mammalogists believed the type specimen of crooki to be a hybrid between desert mule deer and Coues white-tailed deer (O. virginianus couesi), while others hypothesized it represented extremes of normal variation in mule deer. I have reassessed the type specimen of Dorcelaphus crooki and reaffirm that it is a hybrid, invalidating the use of the crooki subspecies name. Consequently, the oldest available name for the desert mule deer is O. h. eremicus. Resumen. — El nombre actual del venado bura del desierto (Odocoileus hem-ionus crooki) se basa en un ejemplar colectado en el suroeste de Nuevo Mexico cerca de la frontera con Mexico. E. A. Mearns describio este ejemplar como una nueva especie (Dorcelaphus crooki) de venado cola negra, no como un venado bura, debido a que muchos de sus caracteres son intermedios entre los del venado cola blanca y los del venado bura. En la misma publicacion, Mearns describio tambien a Dorcelaphus hemionus eremicus del occidente de Sonora, Mexico, como una nueva subespecie de venado bura del desierto. Un gran numero de mastozoologos ha considerado que el ejemplar tipo de crooki es un hibrido entre el venado bura del desierto y el venado cola blanca de Coues (O. virginianus couesi), mientras que otros han hipotetizado que representaba ex-tremos de la variacion normal del venado bura. Despues de reevaluar el ejem-plar tipo de Dorcelaphus crooki concluyo que es en realidad un hibrido. Por lo tanto, el nombre valido mas antiguo para el venado bura del desierto es O. h. eremicus. Desert mule deer (presently known as cific name of this taxon has been conten-Odocoileus hemionus crooki Mearns, 1897) tious due to uncertainties regarding the hy-inhabit the southwestern United States from brid status of the type specimen. West Texas through southern New Mexico and southern Arizona, and southward into Historical Review Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and Durango, Mexico (Leopold 1959, Cow-Mearns (1897) described Dorcelaphus an 1961, Wallmo 1981). In addition, a small crooki as a new species of black-tailed deer herd has been translocated to Nuevo Leon, because of its similarity to the Columbian Mexico (Morrison et al. 1992; Fig. 1). black-tailed deer (O. h. columbianus). The Since its original description, the subspe-type specimen (National Museum of Natu-
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