Peromyscus gossypinus
| Cotton Deermouse
(Peromyscus gossypinus) | |
|---|---|
| Range | |
 | |
| Taxonomic classification | |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Suborder: | Supramyomorpha |
| Infraorder: | Myomorphi |
| Superfamily: | Muroidea |
| Family: | Cricetidae |
| Subfamily: | Neotominae |
| Tribe: | Peromyscini |
| Genus: | Peromyscus |
| Binomial details | |
| Peromyscus gossypinus (Le Conte, 1853) | |
Description
From Wolfe & Linzey (1977): "This medium-sized rodent is dark golden-brown above. A dusky middorsal area extends from the shoulders to the base of the tail. The underparts are white, as are the feet. The sparsely-haired tail is shorter than the head and body, dark above, and fading to white or off-white below."
From Best & Hunt (2020): "This is the largest member of the genus Peromyscus in the southeastern United States. Dorsal pelage is dark golden-brown with a poorly defined darker mid-dorsal band extending from neck to base of tail. Most of the head is grayish, and cheeks are brown. Ventral pelage and feet are white. Eyes and ears are prominent. The tail is sparsely haired, indistinctly bicolored, dark brown on top, whitish on the underside, and shorter than the length of the head and body combined."
From Schmidly & Bradley (2016) for Texas: "A medium-sized, heavy bodied deermouse; tail much shorter than head and body, between three and four times the length of hind foot and not sharply bicolor, but darker above than below; ears small (16–18 mm from notch); upperparts mummy brown, the middorsal area suffused with black; sides bright russet; underparts creamy white; feet white, but tarsal joint of heel dark like leg."
External measurements
Length measurements are in millimeters (mm) and weight measurements are in grams (g), unless stated otherwise. If available, the sample size (n=) is provided. If a range is not provided and n= is not given, then the listed measurement represents an average.
| Part of range | Reference | Total length | Tail length | Hindfoot length | Ear length | Mass |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Best & Dusi (2014) | 153 (137–199) (n=44) | 74 (59–95) (n=44) | 23 (22–24) (n=44) | 29 (20–40) (n=23) | |
| Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland | Webster et al. (1985) | 175–198 | 70–90 | 22–25 | ||
| rangewide | Wolfe and Linzey (1977) | 142–206 | 55–97 | 16–26 | 10–21 | 17–46 |
| Texas | Schmidly & Bradley (2016) | 180 | 78 | 23 | 34–51 | |
| Virginia | Linzey (1998) | 175–200 | 70–90 | 22–26 | 28–56 |
Color variation
This section shows some of the color variation present in Peromyscus gossypinus. The location is provided for reference only. The individual shown does not necessarily represent the only color variant within the local population.
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Alabama, Bibb County -
Florida, Putnam County -
Florida, Putnam County -
Georgia, Baker County
Skull
From Wolfe & Linzey (1977): " The skull has been described by Osgood (1909). It does not differ greatly from the skulls of other species of Peromyscus, although it is larger and heavier than those of other species in the eastern United States. The overall length of skull generally exceeds 27 mm."
Similar species
Comparison with Peromyscus leucopus
Distinguishing Peromyscus gossypinus from Peromyscus leucopus in the field can be extremely challenging. From Fernandes et al. (2010): "Traditionally, pelage coloration, body measurements, and cranial characteristics have been used to distinguish the Cotton Mouse from the White-footed Mouse [Peromyscus leucopus]. The dorsum of the Cotton Mouse is dark golden brown with a mid-dorsal dusky area. The White-footed Mouse is grayish brown to dull reddish brown dorsally. Both species are white on the ventral side (Wilson and Ruff 1999). The Cotton Mouse is more massive (17–46 g) than the White-footed Mouse (15–25 g) and has a considerably darker dorsum (Reed et al. 2004, Whitaker and Hamilton 1998). Hind-foot length is generally >22 mm in Cotton Mouse and 22 mm in the White-footed Mouse (Dice 1940, McCarley 1954a). The two species are best distinguished by skull length, which is generally >28 mm in the Cotton Mouse and <25.4 mm in the White-footed Mouse (Lowery 1974). Since skull length and other cranial characteristics require sacrifice of animals, these criteria are not useful in many ecological studies. In certain habitats, morphological differences between the two species can be rather subtle (Hoffmeister 1989, Schwartz and Schwartz 1981) due to their close relationship (Lovecky et al. 1979, McCarley 1963), so misidentifications of species occur. Identification is particularly challenging when small sample sizes preclude use of discriminant function analysis of external measurements (Choate 1973, Feldhamer et al. 1983). Additionally, age and geographic variation can affect accuracy of identification based on external measurements (Sternburg and Feldhamer 1997)."
From Wolfe & Linzey (1977): "Hybrids between the two species have been obtained through captive breeding (Dice, 1937), and naturally occurring hybrids have been reported in Virginia (Dice, 1940), Alabama (Howell, 1921) and Texas (McCarley, 1954a). The authors are of the opinion that natural hybridization between P. leucopus and P. gossypinus rarely occurs. Keys in general use distinguish P. gossypinus on the basis of hind foot length greater than 22 mm and skull length greater than 28 mm. Studies in Alabama have shown that specimens showing intermediate (or "hybrid") skull or hind foot lengths can be distinguished by other, perhaps more critical criteria such as length and width of the anterior palatine foramina (Linzey et al., 1976). It is generally stated that ecological displacement between the two species occurs (McCarley, 1954b, 1963), although both taxa may be taken side by side in some habitats (Linzey and Linzey, 1968)."
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Peromyscus gossypinus -
White-footed Deermouse (Peromyscus leucopus) -
Representation of Hoffmeister's 1977 scattergram for differentiating the skulls of Peromyscus gossypinus and Peromyscus leucopus (from Hoffmeister, 1989).
Comparison with Peromyscus maniculatus and Peromyscus sonoriensis
Sympatric P. maniculatus and P. sonoriensis have smaller body sizes and, unlike P. gossypinus, they normally have sharply bicolor tails (Wolfe and Linzey, 1977).
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Peromyscus gossypinus -
Eastern Deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) -
Western Deermouse (Peromyscus sonoriensis)
Comparison with Peromyscus polionotus
Adult Peromyscus polionotus can easily be differentiated from P. gossypinus by their smaller size.
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Peromyscus gossypinus -
Oldfield Deermouse (Peromyscus polionotus)
Comparison with Podomys floridanus
Peromyscus gossypinus can be distinguished from Podomys floridanus by the six plantar tubercles on each hind foot, whereas Podomys floridanus have five (Wolfe and Linzey, 1977). Florida mice have a distinctive skunk-like odor (Layne, 1990; Best and Hunt, 2020).
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Peromyscus gossypinus -
Florida Deermouse (Podomys floridanus)
References
Best TL, Hunt JL. 2020. Mammals of the southeastern United States. Tuscaloosa (AL, USA): University Alabama Press.
Choate JR. 1973. Identification and recent distribution of white-footed mice (Peromyscus) in New England. Journal of Mammalogy 54(1):41-49.
Dice LR. 1937. Fertility relations in the Peromyscus leucopus group of mice. Contrib. Lab. Vert. Genetics, Univ. Michigan 4:1-3
Dice LR. 1940. Relationships between the wood-mouse and the cotton-mouse in eastern Virginia. Journal of Mammalogy 21(1): 14-23.
Feldhamer GA, Gates JE, Howard JH. 1983. Field identification of Peromyscus maniculatus and P. leucopus in Maryland: reliability of morphological characteristics. Acta Theriologica 28(27):417-423.
Fernandes PR, Reynolds JL, Segedin-Garrett N, Dewey MJ. 2010. Identification of Peromyscus gossypinus at Poinsett State Park, South Carolina. Southeastern Naturalist 9(4), 757-772.
Hoffmeister DF. 1989. Mammals of Illinois. Urbana (IL, USA): University of Illinois Press.
Howell AH. 1921. A biological survey of Alabama. North American Fauna 45:1-88.
Layne JN. 1990. The Florida mouse. Pp. 1-21, in Burrow associates of the gopher tortoise (C. K. Dodd, Jr., R. E. Ashton, Jr., R. Franz, and E. Wester, eds.). Eighth Annual Meeting, Gopher Tortoise Council, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, 134 pp.
Linzey AV, Linzey DW, Perkins SE Jr. 1976. The Peromyscus leucopus species group in Alabama. Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science 47, 109-113.
Lovecky DV, Estep DQ, Dewsbury DA. 1979. Copulatory behaviour of cotton mice (Peromyscus gossypinus) and their reciprocal hybrids with white-footed mice (P. leucopus). Animal Behaviour 27: 371-375.
Lowery GH Jr. 1974. The mammals of Louisiana and adjacent waters. Baton Rouge (LA, USA): Louisiana State University Press.
McCarley WH. 1954a. Natural hybridization in the Peromyscus leucopus species group of mice. Evolution pp.314-323.
McCarley WH. 1954b. The ecological distribution of the Peromyscus leucopus species group in eastern Texas. Ecology 35:375-379.
McCarley WH. 1963. Distributional relationships of sympatric populations of Peromyscus leucopus and P. gossypinus. Ecology 44(4):784-788.
Osgood WH. 1909. Revision of the mice of the American genus Peromyscus. North American Fauna 28:1-285
Poole GAK. 2005. Hybridization of the cotton mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus) with the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) in southern Illinois (Order No. 1432632). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305389903). http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/hybridization-cotton-mouse-i-peromyscus/docview/305389903/se-2.
Reed AW, Kennedy PK, Beck ML, Kennedy ML. 2004. Using morphologic characters to identify Peromyscus in sympatry. The American Midland Naturalist 152(1), pp.190-195.
Schmidly DJ, Bradley RD. 2016. The mammals of Texas. Austin (TX, USA): University of Texas Press.
Schwartz CW, Schwartz ER. 1981. The wild mammals of Missouri, revised edition. Columbia (MO, USA): University of Missouri Press and Missouri Department of Conservation.
Sternburg JE, Feldhamer A. 1997. Mensular discrimination between sympatric Peromyscus leucopus and Peromyscus maniculatus in southern Illinois. Acta Theriologica 42(1):1-13.
Whitaker JO, Hamilton WJ. 1998. Mammals of the eastern United States. Ithaca, (NY, USA): Cornell University Press.
Wilson DE, Ruff S, editors. 1999. The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals. Washington D.C. (USA): Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Wolfe JL, Linzey AV. 1977. Peromyscus gossypinus. Mammalian species (70), 1-5.