Chiroderma trinitatum, Goodwin, 1958

Garbino, Guilherme S. T., Lim, Burton K. & Tavares, Valéria Da C., 2020, Systematics of big-eyed bats, genus Chiroderma Peters, 1860 (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), Zootaxa 4846 (1), pp. 1-93 : 16

The trinitatum complex

The following two species are the smallest in Chiroderma , distinguishable from larger Chiroderma spp. by their size and qualitative characteristics of the skull and dentition. However, the two species are phenotypically similar to each other. The molecular phylogenies recovered a cis-Andean haplogroup of small Chiroderma , for which the applicable name would be trinitatum Goodwin, 1958 , as the sister group of C. doriae . However, the sister group of this clade is a trans-Andean haplogroup of small Chiroderma , for which the oldest name is gorgasi Handley, 1960 . Under the scenario of a paraphyletic C. trinitatum , one option is to synonymize the two small species into the oldest name, which is C. doriae Thomas, 1891 , and recognize three subspecies. C. d. doriae , C. d. trinitatum , and C. d. gorgasi . However, given the significant phenotypic differences among C. doriae and the other species, we recognize gorgasi and trinitatum as distinct species, bearing in mind that both are not easily diagnosed morphologically, although there are subtle dental and cranial shape differences (Lim e t al. 2020).

Chiroderma gorgasi Handley, 1960 is the name we use for the trans-Andean populations of small Chiroderma . The name gorgasi has been used as a subspecies of C. trinitatum by some authors ( Barriga-Bonilla 1965; Jones & Carter 1976; Gardner 2008a). The species occurs in sympatry with C. salvini and C. v. jesupi ( Table 6).

Chiroderma trinitatum consists of a highly supported haplogroup of small Chiroderma from the cis-Andean Guiana Shield and Amazon basin. It occurs in sympatry with C. salvini and C. v. villosum ( Table 6).