Noteworthy Records of Bats From Nicaragua, with a Checklist of the Chiropteran Fauna of the CountryJones, J. Knox
Science
Noteworthy Records of Bats From Nicaragua, with a Checklist of the Chiropteran Fauna of the Country
Jones, J. Knox
Bats -- Nicaragua
In the accounts that follow, departments in Nicaragua are listed
alphabetically, but localities within each department are arranged from
north to south; elevations are given in meters or feet, depending on
which was used on specimen labels. All specimens are in the Museum of
Natural History of The University of Kansas unless noted otherwise. We
are indebted to Drs. Charles O. Handley, Jr., and Ronald Pine of the
U.S. National Museum (USNM) for lending us certain critical specimens.
ACCOUNTS OF SPECIES
Saccopteryx leptura (Schreber, 1774)
Two specimens from El Paraíso, 1 km N Cosigüina, 20 m, Chinandega, on
the Cosigüina Peninsula, provide the fourth locality of record for this
white-lined bat in Nicaragua. Jones (1964a:506) and Davis _et al._
(1964:375) earlier reported a total of eight specimens from the
departments of Managua and Zelaya. The species is known as far north in
Middle America as Chiapas (Carter _et al._, 1966:489).
Our two bats, both females, were shot on the evening of 1 March 1968 as
they foraged around a yard light. One carried an embryo that measured 8
mm (crown-rump), whereas the other was reproductively inactive.
Peropteryx macrotis macrotis (Wagner, 1843)
Four females (one young and three adult) captured 5 km N and 9 km E
Condega, 800 m, in Madriz, on 23 June 1964, provide the first record of
this small sac-winged species from Nicaragua. The bats were shot from
daytime roosts in small, well-lighted, cave-like spaces formed among
immense blocks of granite in a small patch of tropical deciduous forest
surrounded by extensive pine-oak woodland. None of the adult females
was reproductively active. _Glossophaga soricina_, _Diphylla ecaudata_,
and a large nursery colony of _Desmodus rotundus_ were found in
association with the _Peropteryx_. Measurements of our specimens agree
closely with those reported for material from El Salvador (Felten,
1955:284) and Costa Rica (Starrett and Casebeer, 1968:3-4).
Noctilio labialis labialis (Kerr, 1792)
_Specimens._--_Boaco_: 4 km W Teustepe, 140 m, 9. _Chontales_: Hato
Grande, 13 km S, 8 km W Juigalpa, 60 m, 49. _Rivas_: 4 km S, 1.5 km
E Alta Gracia, 40 m, Isla de Ometepe, 1; Finca Amayo, 13 km S, 14
km E Rivas, 40 m, 4. _Zelaya_: S side Río Mico, El Recreo, 25 m, 1;
Cara de Mono, 50 m, 2.
This species has been reported previously from Nicaragua by several
authors. All our specimens were netted over small streams or shot as
they foraged; parts of scarabids and lepidopterans were found in the
mouths of several individuals shot at Finca Amayo. Twenty-six of 31
autopsied females taken in April were pregnant, each containing a
single embryo--average crown-rump length 16.7 (5-26) mm. Testes of 15
males collected in April had an average length of 4.6 (2-7) mm, those
of four taken in June, 5.2 (4-6) mm.
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