PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 115(2):249-272. 2002. A new species of small-eared shrew from Colombia and Venezuela (Mammalia: Soricomorpha: Soricidae: Genus Cryptotis) Neal Woodman USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, National Museum of Natural History, NHB 378, MRC-111, Washington, DC 20013-7012, U.S.A. Abstract. — Populations of small-eared shrews inhabiting the northern Cor-dillera Oriental of Colombia and adjoining Venezuelan highlands in the vicinity of Paramo de Tama have been referred alternatively to Cryptotis thomasi or Cryptotis meridensis. Morphological and morphometrical study of this popu-lation indicates that it belongs to neither taxon, but represents a distinct, pre-viously unrecognized species. I describe this new species as Cryptotis tamensis and redescribe C. meridensis. Recognition of the population at Paramo de Tama as a separate taxon calls into question the identities of populations of shrews currently represented only by single specimens from Cerro Pintad o in t]i£_Sierra de Perija, Colombia, and near El Junquito in the coastal hj^fl^WB' zuela. All South American shrews (Family Sor-icidae) are members of the genus Cryptotis, a taxon that is widespread in eastern and central North America, Central America, and northwestern South America. Soricids inhabit exclusively montane regions in South America, being restricted to high-lands above at least 1200 m in the Andes north of the Huancabamba Depression, Peru. Shrews were first reported from South America near the end of the 19th century, when Cryptotis thomasi (Merriam, 1897) was described from near Bogota in the Cor-dillera Oriental of Colombia. Since then, several additional taxa of shrews have been named from the continent (e.g., Thomas 1898, 1912, 1921; Allen 1912; Anthony 1921; Woodman & Timm 1993; Vivar et al. 1997), although the number of recognized species has varied from one (Hershkovitz 1969, 1972) to as many as ten (Tate 1932). The taxonomy of North American and Cen-tral American species of Cryptotis has been studied in some detail, but a comprehensive revision of South American taxa has not been attempted since Tate (1932) summa-rized their distributions. The taxonomy, systematic s, and ^i i i^i ijiTiTn lirTi ilw irm of South Americ^" soricids remain poorly un-derstood. The first species of shrew recorded from Venezuela was Cryptotis meridensis (Thomas, 1898), which was described based on specimens from Venezuela's Cor-dillera de los Andes, near Merida. Although the taxonomic status of C meridensis has fluctuated between that of a subspecies of a widespread, poorly-defined C thomasi (Ca-brera 1958; Handley 1976; Corbet & Hill 1980, 1986, 1991; Honacki et al. 1982; Du-rant & Pefaur 1984; Eisenberg 1989) and that of a distinct species (Cabrera 1925; Tate 1932; Cabrera & Yepes 1940, 1960; Hutterer 1986, 1993; Linares 1998), its po-sition as a definable taxon has appeared to remain relatively stable. In reality, its per-ceived membership has varied consider-ably. The geographic range of C meridensis traditionally has included both the Cordil-lera de los Andes (including Sierra de Me-rida and Sierra del Norte [= Sierra de La Culata]) in Venezuela and the Paramo de Tama (= Macizo de El Tama) on the Co-
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