Field identification of Peromyscus maniculatus and P. leucopus in Maryland: reliability of morphological characteristics

Abstract

1983: Field identification of Peromyscus maniculatus and P. leucopus in Maryland: reliability of morphological characteristics. Acta theriol., 28, 27: 417—423 [With 2 Tables] In western Maryland, two external criteria, the ratio tail length/head and body length in conjuction with body weight, correctly identified 93.2% of adult Peromyscus maniculatus and P. leucopus to species, without resourse to subjective characteristics. Multiple stepwise dis-criminant function analysis was also used with several morphological variables to differentiate between the two species. It was able to clas-sify the two species correctly in 95.1% of all cases. No morphological characteristic by itself or in combination was found to reliably identify these two species 100% of the time.