Eligmodontia puerulus Philippi 1896 Eligmodontia puerulus Philippi 1896, Anal. Mus. Nac. Chile, Zool. Ent., 13a: 20. Type Locality: Chile, Antofagasta Prov., San Pedro de Atacama, 3223 m. Vernacular Names: Altiplano Laucha. Synonyms: Eligmodontia hirtipes (Thomas 1902); Eligmodontia jacunda Thomas 1919; Eligmodontia marica Thomas 1918; Eligmodontia tarapacensis Mann 1945. Distribution: Altiplano, usually above 3000 m, of extreme S Perú, through NE Chile and WC Bolivia, to NW Argentina. Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc). Discussion: Reduced to a subspecies of E. typus by Hershkovitz (1962), but morphological (Mann, 1978; Osgood, 1943) and karyotypic (Kelt et al., 1991; Ortells et al., 1989; Spotorno et al., 1994) data sustain the specific recognition of E. puerulus. Further systematic review is required: e.g., Braun (1993) and Díaz and Barquez (1999) viewed hirtipes as a separate species but Anderson (1997) did not; and Galliari et al. (1996) and Mares et al. (1997) listed marica as distinct.

Published as part of Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, pp. 955-1189 in Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore :The Johns Hopkins University Press on page 1113, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7316535