Artibeus obscurus (Schinz, 1821)

Cláudio, Vinícius C., Barbosa, Gedimar P., Rocha, Vlamir J. & Rassy, Ricardo Moratelli Fabrício B., 2020, The bat fauna (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of Carlos Botelho State Park, Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil, including new distribution records for the state of São Paulo, Zoologia (e 36514) 37, pp. 1-32 : 14-16

Artibeus obscurus (Schinz, 1821)

Fig. 20

Taxonomy. The distinction of A. obscurus from A. lituratus and A. fimbriatus is discussed above. Artibeus obscurus and A. planirostris are similar in size and can be externally distinguished using the length of dorsal fur (8–10 mm in A. obscurus , 6–8 mm in A. planirostris ), fur on the dorsal side of the forearm (densely furred in A. obscurus and almost naked in A. planirostris ), and a more strong ventral frosting in A. obscurus , which is usually dark- er than A. planirostris ( Koepcke and Kraft 1984, Marques-Aguiar 1994, 2008, Haynes and Lee Jr 2004, Hollis 2005, Dias and Peracchi 2008, Araújo and Langguth 2010). The PECB specimens (ZSP 009, 025; see Table 6 for measurements) identified as A. obscurus presented bicolored dorsal fur with pale brown basis and grayish dark brown tips, and ventral fur weakly bicolored, with pale basis and frosted tips. Dorsal fur averaging 11 mm (10.35–11.8 mm), forearm densely furred, uropatagium sparsely furred, the base of noseleaf usually free (sometimes attached only at the central portion), ears and tragus are brownish, the facial stripes are poorly marked and a dark mask is present around the eyes.

Distribution. In Brazil, the species is recorded in all the biomes except Pampas, in the states of Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia, Pará, Amapá, Roraima, Ceará, Piauí, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Bahia, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, and Santa Catarina ( Reis et al. 2013, Sampaio et al. 2016). In São Paulo, the species is distributed along the coastal Atlantic Forest ( Garbino 2016).

Field observations. We recorded 31 captures, of which 27 (10 males and 17 females) were taken in mist-nets set at ground-level in the sampling sites M3, M4, M5, M16, M18, M21, M22, M23, M24, M25, M27, M28, M37 and M38, and four females in mist-nets elevated 8 m in the sampling sites M5, M18, M24 and M28 (Appendix 1). Captures occurred in October, January, February, March, April, May, July, August and September. We captured lactating females in January, February, April, May and July; pregnant females in May and August; and juveniles in January and April.