Vol. 69, pp. 205-206 December 31, 1956 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON A NEW JIRD FROM LIBYA By H. W. Setzer United States National Museum The new jird described below was obtained as the result of field work sponsored by the Office of Naval Research on con-tract Nonr 1808(00) ; the specimens are now part of the collec-tions of the United States National Museum. All measurements are in millimeters and capitalized color terms are from Eidgway "Color Standards and Color Nomenclature" 1912. Meriones shawl azizi subsp. no v. Type.— Adult male, skin and skull, U.S.N.M. 302242 from 5 km. SE Derna, Cyrenaica, Libya. Obtained 9 November 1955 by H. W. Setzer, original no. 2717. Specimens examined. — Two, both from the type locality. Diagnosis. — General overall dorsal coloration near Buffy Brown grad-ually shading over the sides and flanks to a line of pure color near Pinkish Cinnamon; entire underparts, dorsal surfaces of hands and feet, and small postauricular spot pure white; tail markedly bieolor, slightly darker than general overall dorsal color and with a black pencil on the dorsal surface for about the distal one-fourth. Skull average for the species ; auditory bullae well inflated ; zygomatic arches relatively broad ; rostrum relatively heavy; interorbitum relatively wide; and braincase relatively well inflated. Measurements of the type specimen. — Total length 278; length of tail 143 ; length of hind foot 33 ; length of ear from notch 19 ; occipitonasal length of skull 36.4; length of palate 19.2; length of auditory portion of auditory bulla 12.4; crown length of upper toothrow 4.8; least inter-orbital breadth 6.6; length of nasals 14.0; breadth of rostrum at level of antorbital foramen 4.9 ; greatest breadth across zygomatic arches 20.9. Comparisons. — Meriones shawi azizi differs from M. s. shawi, as known from Ghemtnez, Libya, in markedly darker dorsal coloration, somewhat longer tail, somewhat shorter hind foot, and a markedly reduced post-auricular spot. Skull more rounded dorsally, wider interorbitally, ros-trum wider, zygomatic arches wider, auditory bullae shorter and more inflated ventrally, and upper incisors narrower. BemarTcs. — This new subspecies needs comparison with no other named subspecies of shawi since the only other two kinds are farther removed geographically than is the nominate form. These animals were apparently not common near Derna. They occurred 35— Pboo. Biou Soo. Wash., Vol. 69, 1956 (205) DEC 3 1 19gg
BioStor
