Eptesicus furinalis (d'Orbigny, 1847)

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 : 131-132

Eptesicus furinalis

(d’Orbigny and Gervais, 1847)

Figure 32

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL = 2): Jenaro Herrera (ROM 122089, 122178); see table 59 for measurements.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: We captured six individuals of Eptesicus furinalis between 16 and 21 February 2019 on the Tahuayo expedition, five at El Chino Village and one at Frog Valley. This species was also identified using acoustic methods during the CEBIO bat course at Jenaro Herrera in 2012.

IDENTIFICATION: Eptesicus furinalis can be distinguished from other Neotropical congeners by its medium size (forearm 36–43 mm, greatest length of skull> 15 mm), relatively short (<7 mm) dorsal fur, and yellowish ventral fur (Davis, 1966; Davis and Gardner, 2008; López-Baucells et al., 2018). Descriptions and measurements of Eptesicus furinalis have been provided by Davis (1966), Barquez et al. (1999), Lim et al. (2005), Davis and Gardner (2008), and Sánchez et al. (2019). Two subspecies are currently recognized: E. f. furinalis (northern Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, and Uruguay) and E. f. gaumeri ( Mexico southward throughout Central America to Amazonian Brazil and Bolivia) (Davis and Gardner, 2008). Based on geography, material from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve should correspond to E. f. gaumeri, but this species is highly variable across its distribution, and the last revision of the genus (Davis, 1966) did not include any Peruvian samples. Until larger samples and genetic data become available, we recommend against formally recognizing subspecies of E. furinalis .

The two specimens from Jenaro Herrera conform to previous descriptions of Eptesicus furinalis , with measurements that fall within the range of size variation previously documented for the species. The material we examined in the field at El Chino Village conformed to previous descriptions of the species, with yellowish ventral fur and external measurements that were within the range of size variation previously documented for Eptesicus furinalis .

REMARKS: Of the eight recorded captures of Eptesicus furinalis from our region, three were taken in ground-level mistnets, two were taken in elevated nets, and three were taken in harp traps. Two captures were in primary forest and six were in clearings.

Figures

FIG. 32. Photograph of an adult Eptesicus furinalis captured at Frog Valley. Photograph by Brock Fenton.