Chrotopterus auritus (Peters, 1856)

Velazco, Paúl M., Voss, Robert S., Fleck, David W. & Simmons, Nancy B., 2021, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 4: Bats, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2021 (451), pp. 1-201 : 65-67

Chrotopterus auritus (Peters, 1856)

Figure 16A

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL = 3): Jenaro Herrera (MUSM 5506), Nuevo San Juan (AMNH 272843; MUSM 13196); see table 31 for measurements.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: One individual of Chrotopterus auritus was captured at Divisor during the Sierra del Divisor Rapid Biological Inventory (Jorge and Velazco, 2006).

IDENTIFICATION: Chrotopterus is a widespread, monotypic genus that ranges from southern Mexico to northern Argentina (Medellín, 1989; Williams and Genoways, 2008). It is easily distinguished from other phyllostomines by the following characteristics: large size (forearm 74–83 mm, greatest length of skull 34–37 mm), lower portion of noseleaf cup shaped, pelage long and woolly, tail rudimentary, calcar longer than foot, wing tips whitish, and lower incisor series reduced to a single tooth on each side (Medellín, 1989; Williams and Genoways, 2008; López-Baucells et al., 2018). Descriptions and measurements of Chrotopterus auritus were provided by Thomas (1905), Taddei (1975), Swanepoel and Genoways (1979), Williams and Genoways (1980a), Medellín (1989), Brosset and Charles- Dominique (1990), Simmons and Voss (1998), Wetterer et al. (2000), Lim et al. (2005), and Williams and Genoways (2008).

Three subspecies have been recognized: Chrotopterus auritus auritus ( Mexico to Panama and western Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), C. a. australis (southeastern Peru, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina), and C. a. guianae (eastern Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern Brazil) (Thomas,

TABLE 31

External and Craniodental Measurements (mm) and Weights (g) of Chrotopterus auritus

and Gardnerycteris crenulata from the Yavarí-Ucayali Interfluve

1905; Cabrera, 1958; Jones and Carter, 1976; Medellín, 1989). However, many recent authors have noted that patterns of morphological variation in C. auritus do not conform to this arrangement and that no subspecific classification is warranted (Handley, 1966; Koopman, 1994; Simmons and Voss, 1998; Williams and Genoways, 2008). More recently, Clare (2011) and Clare et al. (2011) explored the genetic diversity in C. auritus using the mitochondrial COI gene and an intron region of the Dby gene in a limited geographical sample. They found evidence that C. auritus might be a species complex including as many as three taxa, but until more geographically comprehensive multigene studies are completed, we recommend against recognizing subspecies of C. auritus .

Ascorra et al. (1993) and Fleck et al. (2002) correctly identified their material from Jenaro Herrera and Nuevo San Juan, respectively, as Chrotopterus auritus . The voucher material we examined from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve conforms to previous descriptions of the species, with measurements that fall within the previously documented range of size variation for C. auritus .

REMARKS: No ecological information is available for the specimen of Chrotopterus auritus captured at Jenaro Herrera. The specimens from Nuevo San Juan were both captured in ground-level mistnets, the first on 1 July 1998 in closed-canopy secondary vegetation, the second on 6 July 1998 in hillcrest primary forest. No roosting groups of this species were encountered during our study.

Figures

FIG. 16. Photographs of A, an adult Chrotopterus auritus captured at Quebrada Blanco and B, an adult female (ROM 122118) Gardnerycteris crenulata captured at Jenaro Herrera. Photographs by Marco Tschapka (A) and Burton Lim (B).