Liomys salvini is found along the Pacific slope in the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas south through Central Costa Rica. From the Pacific Slope, the range extends significantly inland in Southern Guatemala, Southern Honduras, and Nicaragua. It is usually found from the lowlands to elevations of 1500 meters.

(Reid, 1997)

Biogeographic Regions: neotropical (Native )

Head and body length: 103-140 mm

Tail length: 97-144 mm

Hind foot length: 26-30 mm

Ear length: 12-16 mm

Liomys salvini is sexually dimorphic, with females averaging 39g and males averaging 51g. When males are sexually active their scrotal testes are greatly enlarged.

Liomys salvini is a small to medium sized rodent. Like other pocket mice, L. salvini has external, fur-lined pouches in its cheeks for carrying seeds and other materials. Although the darkness of the fur can vary quite a bit geographically, L. salvini is always grey or grey-brown dorsally with cream-colored underparts, forelegs, and feet. The darker dorsal fur is interspersed with dark spiny hairs and lighter, cream-colored hairs. The tail is approximately equal to the body length, bicolor, and nearly hairless (although it may have a short terminal hair tuft). In regions of overlap, L. salvini can be distinguished from other species by the lack of orange side stripes (/Liomys pictus/) and a lack of dark forelimbs (/Heteromys desmarestianus/). Body and tail proportions are also different between species.

(Reid, 1997, Flemming, 1983)

Range mass: 30 to 65 g.

• Terrestrial

Typically Liomys salvini are found in drier habitats than other tropical pocket mice (especially Heteromys desmarestianus, which live in wet tropical forests). They are found in dry tropical forests and in brushy, weedy fields. L. salvini are most often trapped along walls or rocks.

(Flemming, 1975, Reid, 1997)

Terrestrial Biomes: forest ; scrub forest

Although Liomys salvini eat some insects, they are mainly a seed-eaters. In Costa Rica, L. salvini favors the seeds of the buttercup tree (/Cochlospermum vitifolium/) during the dry season. During other seasons they eat the seeds of many other species, including the poisonous seeds of guanacaste (/Enterolobium cyclocarpum/). Seeds are located by odor and they can reportedly locate seeds that are buried in dung.

(Flemming, 1983, Flemming, 1975, Reid, 1997)

The reproductive season stretches from January in the dry season to about mid-June in the early wet season. Average litter size is 3.8 young. Females have one to two litters annually, and may have a litter late in the breeding season in which they were born. Males mature sexually at approximately 6 months. Life span is relatively short, resulting in a high turnover rate in the population and dominance by last year's young. Most individuals will survive for only one year and a few individuals will live to be 15 to 18 months old. Females nest within individual burrow systems.

(Flemming, 1983, Reid, 1997)

Liomys salvini has no special conservation status, but is presumably negatively impacted by deforestation and habitat destruction. In dry forested areas it is still locally common.

Reid (1997)

US Federal List: no special status

CITES: no special status

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern

No negative impacts have been reported.

Liomys salvini may be important in supporting diverse faunas, dispersing tropical forest seeds, and in insect control.

(Flemming, 1983)