Tonatia silvicola (d'Orbigny, 1836)

Simmons, Nancy B. & Voss, Robert S., 1998, The mammals of Paracou, French Guiana, a Neotropical lowland rainforest fauna. Part 1, Bats, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 237, pp. 1-219 : 90-91

Tonatia silvicola

VOUCHER MATERIAL: 4 females (AMNH *267108, *267422, *267924; MNHN *1995.1057) and 6 males (AMNH *267107, *267922, *267923, *267925; MNHN *1995.1058, *1995.1059); see table 30 for measurements.

IDENTIFICATION: Useful descriptions and comparative measurements of Tonatia silvicola 10 can be found in Husson (1962, 1978), Davis and Carter (1978), Swanepoel and Genoways (1979), Genoways and Williams (1984), and Medellín and Arita (1989). Four subspecies are currently recognized, of which T. s. laephotis is the Guianan form (Koopman, 1994).

Our voucher material conforms closely with descriptions of Tonatia silvicola in the literature cited above. Like the holotype of T. s. laephotis (from Guyana; Thomas, 1910) and specimens from Guyana and Surinam subsequently referred to T. s. laephotis by Hill (1964) and Genoways and Williams (1984), measurements of our material (table 30) fall at the upper end of the size range known for T. silvicola . A few specimens in our series have measurements slightly in excess of previously reported values.

As in Tonatia brasiliense , T. carrikeri , and T. schulzi , we found that all individuals of T. silvicola folded their ears back over the crown of the head when the pinnae were touched. This is an easy way to distinguish T. silvicola from T. saurophila in the hand. Another useful field character is ear length (table 30): T. silvicola has very large ears (36.0–41.0 mm), while those of T. saurophila are substantially smaller (29.0–34.0 mm).

FIELD OBSERVATIONS: All of the 11 Tonatia silvicola we captured at Paracou were taken in ground­level mistnets: 6 in well­drained primary forest, 3 in swampy primary forest, and 2 in creekside primary forest.