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
Saccopteryx gymnura
Thomas
Figure 22
VOUCHER MATERIAL:
2 males (AMNH *267843; MNHN *1995.862); see table 8 for measurements.
IDENTIFICATION: Characters and measurements of
Saccopteryx gymnura
were discussed by Thomas (1901b) and Sanborn (1937). No subspecies are current recognized (Koopman, 1994).
Our material of
Saccopteryx gymnura
from Paracou represents a range extension of approximately 900 km for this species, which was previously known only from a few localities along the lower Amazon in Brazil (Koopman, 1994). Despite this considerable geographic hiatus, the Paracou specimens conform closely with published descriptions of the holotype (Thomas, 1901b; Sanborn, 1937) and are indistinguishable from other Brazilian material referable to
S
.
gymnura
(AMNH 93519, 93520; USNM 392995, 460080).
The only species that might be confused with
Saccopteryx gymnura
is
S
.
canescens
. Although similar in size, these tiny bats can be distinguished unambiguously by (1) dorsal fur color (dark brown in
gymnura
, brown with strong grayish or yellowish frosting in
canescens
), (2) dorsal fur markings (stripes absent or very faint in
gymnura
, a pair of white stripes always visible and often bright in
canescens
), (3) ventral fur banding (unicolored dark brown in
gymnura
, bicolored black or dark brown with tan tips in
canescens
), (4) origin of the posterior part of the wing membrane (from the metatarsals in
gymnura
, from the tibia in
canescens
), and (5) length of the forearm (33.5–35.3 mm in
gymnura
, 35.8–40.8 mm in
canescens
). Although there is some species overlap in length of the maxillary toothrow, our specimens of
gymnura
have shorter toothrows (4.6 mm) than those previously reported for specimens of
canescens
(4.9–5.0 mm) from French Guiana (
Brosset and CharlesDominique, 1990
).
FIELD OBSERVATIONS: Both of our specimens of
Saccopteryx gymnura
were captured in groundlevel mistnets, one in a small clearing bordered by welldrained primary forest (fig. 2), the other over a narrow dirt
Fig. 22. Dorsal (
A
), ventral (
B
), and lateral (
C
) views of the skull of
Saccopteryx gymnura
(MNHN 1995.862; male) from Paracou. Scale bar = 5 mm.
road bordered by secondary growth but with welldrained primary forest nearby (fig. 11). Both captures were made shortly after dark (18:55–19:15 hours).