The mammals of Paracou, French Guiana, a Neotropical lowland rainforest fauna. Part 1, Bats
Author
Simmons, Nancy B.
Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA
Author
Voss, Robert S.
Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
1998
1998-12-31
237
1
219
journal article
8160
10.5281/zenodo.4545052
0540f87c-c902-4df5-acd4-51801c9531bd
2246/1634/B237-0004
4545052
Glyphonycteris sylvestris
Thomas
VOUCHER MATERIAL:
1 male (AMNH *267897); see table 20 for measurements.
IDENTIFICATION: Useful descriptions and measurements of
Glyphonycteris sylvestris
were provided by
Andersen (1906)
, Sanborn (1949),
Goodwin and Greenhall (1961)
, Swanepoel and
Genoways (1979)
, and Genoways and Williams (1986). No subspecies are currently recognized (Koopman, 1994).
As mentioned above, most previous workers have placed
Glyphonycteris sylvestris
in the genus
Micronycteris
and have discussed differences between
sylvestis
and other species in that context. We find it more useful to compare
G
.
sylvestris
with its congener
G
.
daviesi
, noting that these taxa can be easily distinguished based on the following: (1) size
large (
daviesi
; see table 20) versus small (
sylvestris
), (2) dorsal fur unicolored brown or gray (
daviesi
) or tricolored (
sylvestris
), (3) upper outer incisor absent (
daviesi
) or moved dorsally and excluded from occlusion by close apposition of inner incisor and canine (
sylvestris
), and (4) lower incisors with crown height approximately twice crown width in anterior view (
daviesi
) or with crown height approximately equal to crown width (
sylvestris
).
Besides
sylvestris
and
daviesi
, the only other named
form referable
to
Glyphonycteris
is
Schizostoma behnii
Peters (1865a)
. About this form, Simmons (1996b: 4) wrote:
M
[
icronycteris
].
behnii
may be a senior synonym of
M
.
sylvestris
, but this has yet to be resolved. The two species are currently distinguished on the basis of size (forearm 37–44 mm in
sylvestris
, 45–47 mm in
behnii
) and the degree of grooving on the upper incisors (prominent in
sylvestris
, somewhat less prominent in
behnii
;
Andersen, 1906
; Koopman, 1994). Only three specimens have been referred to
behnii
: the holotype (ZMB 5154), and two specimens in the British Museum (BMNH 69.5.13.3, 69.5.13.4) that Andersen referred to
behnii
in his 1906 revision. I examined the
latter specimens (both in alcohol, one with skull cleaned), and found that they fall within the range of variation of
sylvestris
in all measurable dimensions. The forearms of both specimens are broken;
Andersen (1906)
reconstructed their length as 45 mm, but I estimate the actual length to be closer to 40–42 mm. The degree of grooving of the upper incisors also falls within the range I have observed in
sylvestris
. Unfortunately, I have not yet seen the holotype of
behnii
, which Peters (1865[b]) described as having a forearm length of 47 mm.
We have encountered several museum specimens labeled ‘‘
Micronycteris behnii
,’’ but examination of all has shown that they represent either
Glyphonycteris sylvestris
as currently recognized or are misidentified specimens of other taxa (e.g.,
Trinycteris nicefori
). The observed range of forearm length in
G
.
sylvestris
is 37.0–41.8 for males and 39.2– 43.8 for females (
Andersen, 1906
; Sanborn, 1949;
Linares, 1969
; Swanepoel and
Genoways, 1979
; Genoways and Williams, 1986; personal obs.), and additional variation seems likely given the relatively small number of available specimens. Although we expect that
behnii
will eventually prove to be a senior synonym of
sylvestris
, we have not yet seen Peter’s type in the Berlin museum; therefore, we continue to use
sylvestris
for the smaller of the two
Glyphonycteris
species examined to date.
The single specimen of
Glyphonycteris sylvestris
that we collected at Paracou agrees in all respects with previous descriptions of the species.
FIELD OBSERVATIONS: The single individual we captured at Paracou was taken shortly before dark (at 18:20 hours) in a groundlevel mistnet in swampy primary forest dominated by the palm
Euterpe oleracea
.