 Although 25 subspecies are accepted, including the type subspecies, the most distinct genetic subdivision within "S. hispidus" separates the species into two genetic lineages, an eastern one and a western one, which hybridize along a contact zone.In the United States, the hispid cotton rat ranges from southern Virginia and North Carolina (especially the coastal plain) west through Tennessee, northern Missouri, Kansas, and extreme southern Nebraska to southeastern Colorado, New Mexico, and southeastern Arizona; south to the Gulf Coast; and south to northern Mexico.It does not occur on the coastal plain of North Carolina nor in the mountains of Virginia.