A new species of nectar-feeding bat, genus Lonchophylla, from western Colombia and western Ecuador (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

Abstract

The twelve recognized species of nectar-feeding bats of the genus Lonchophylla occur in low-and middle-elevation, humid, Neotropical forests. Morphological and morphometrical analyses of specimens formerly lumped with Lonchophylla mordax O. Thomas (1903) support recognition of Lonchophylla concava Goldman (1914) as a separate species and reveal a third species from the western Pacific lowlands of Colombia and Ecuador that I describe herein as Lonchophylla fornicata. This new species is morphologically similar to Lonchophylla concava but is distinctively larger than that species. Tests for sexual dimorphism within these and other species of Lonchophyllini suggest a tendency for females to have slightly longer, narrower skulls, higher coronoid processes of the mandible, and longer forearms than males. The genus Lonchophylla includes twelve species of nectar-feeding bats that are distributed primarily in tropical, low-to mid-elevation forests from southern Nicaragua south to southern Peru, Bolivia,

Mammalia, Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae, Lonchophylla hesperia G. M. Allen, 1908: second record of the Western Nectar Bat in Ecuador after 70 years

“…This individual had the typical diagnostic features for L. hesperia according to Allen (1908), Woodman and Timm (2006), Woodman (2007), and Griffiths and Gardner (2008), including: medium-sized to the genus (in fact L. hesperia is the smallest Lonchophylla in the group comprising the larger species of the genus; Woodman and Timm 2006;Tirira 2007;Woodman 2007;Griffiths and Gardner 2008); dorsum pale brown, and venter grayish brown, paler than back; and forearm shorter than 41 mm, but longer than 36 mm. The thumb measurement differs from that reported by Griffiths and Gardner (2008: 247), who mention that thumb length is shorter than 7.0 mm.…”

A new species of Lonchophylla (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from the eastern Andes of northwestern South America

“…Comparisons with a representative series of other similarly sized congeners are also compiled in table 1. DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISONS: Lonchophylla orienticollina is a medium-sized member of the genus, larger than mordax, concava, fornicata, thomasi, pattoni, cadenai, and dekeyseri, and smaller than handleyi, chocoana, orcesi and most, but not all, robusta; see table 1 (Albuja V. and Gardner, 2005;Dá valos, 2004;Taddei et al, 1983;Woodman, 2007;Woodman and Timm, 2006). Lonchophylla orienticollina can be unambiguously distinguished from the smaller Lonchophylla species on the basis of forearm length (.…”

“…Analyses of morphological (Carstens et al, 2002;Gregorin and Ditchfield, 2005;Wetterer et al, 2000;Woodman, 2007;Woodman and Timm, 2006) and molecular data (Dá valos and Jansa, 2004) strongly support the monophyly of the tribe, but relationships among the included genera are less certain. Although the four genera are morphologically distinct (Woodman and Timm, 2006), both morphological and molecular data have failed to recover a monophyletic genus Lonchophylla, see Woodman (2007), Gregorin and Ditchfield (2005), and Dá valos and Jansa (2004).…”

“…Since the publication of the latest comprehensive taxonomic treatment of Chiroptera by Simmons in 2005, six species in two genera have been described and one subspecies has been elevated to species status (Albuja V. and Gardner, 2005;Dá valos, 2004;Gregorin and Ditchfield, 2005;Woodman, 2007;Woodman and Timm, 2006). The recently described species appear to be narrowly endemic, often known from fewer than five localities e.g., Albuja V. and Gardner (2005), Gregorin and Ditchfield (2006), and Woodman and Timm (2006).…”

Emended diagnosis of Xeronycteris vieirai (Mammalia: Chiroptera), with the first record of polyodontia for the genus

“…Eighteen species are currently recognized within Lonchophyllinae, three of which belong to the monotypic Lionycteris Thomas, 1913, Platalina Thomas, 1928, and Xeronycteris Gregorin & Ditchfield, 2005(GRIFFITHS & GARDNER 2008, and all others to Lonchophylla Thomas, 1903(WOODMAN 2007, DÁVALOS & CORTHALS 2008, DIAS et al 2013. While most lonchophyllines occur in rainforest habitats, some species have been found only in drier environments (GRIFFITHS & GARDNER 2008).…”