Joshua Laerm
Museum of Natural History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602

James L. Boone
Museum of Natural History, Institute of Ecology, and Savannah River Ecology Laboratory University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602

ABSTRACT

We subjected seventeen mensural characters from a total of 460 cotton mice (Peromyscus gossypinus), white-footed mice (P. leucopus), deer mice (P. maniculatus), and old-field mice (P. polionotus) to discriminant analysis to maximally distinguish between specimens of these species in the southeastern USA. If external measurements are available, 13 characters are necessary to correctly classify all specimens. If external measurements are not available, 14 cranial characters discriminate at most 91% of the specimens. In pairwise comparisons among species using external and skull measurements, at least 98% of specimens could be separated with one or two characters. In pairwise comparisons (except P. leucopus - P. maniculatus) using only skull measurements, at least 95% of specimens can be correctly identified to species with one or two characters. For P. leucopus and P. maniculatus, six characters correctly separate 86% of the specimens, and two characters separate 82%.

Table of Pairwise Discriminant Function Coefficients