Vespertilio Hilarii I. Geoffroy, 1824

Turni, Hendrik & Kock, Dieter, 2008, Type specimens of bats (Chiroptera: Mammalia) in the collections of the Museum f r Naturkunde, Berlin, Zootaxa 1869 (1), pp. 1-82 : 58

Vespertilio Hilarii I. Geoffroy, 1824

Geoffroy St. Hilaire, I. (1824) Sur les Vespertilions du Brésil. Annales de Sciences naturelles Paris, 3: 441.

Valid name: Eptesicus furinalis (d’Orbigny, 1847)

Syntype ( Carter & Dolan 1978: 79): ZMB 3912 , skin and skull (extracted in 2007), adult; Goias, Missiones, Brazil; collected by Auguste de St. Hilaire , ex MNHN .

Comment: Rode (1941: 247) listed a holotype for Vespertilio Hilarii (MNHN 834) and three paratypes (MNHN 835, 836, 838), although these latter were not found by Carter & Dolan (1978: 80). It would have been unusual if Geoffroy to have designated a holotype in 1824, and since Rode did not expressly designate a lectotype, all individuals of the type series are to be considered as syntypes. Davis (1966: 257) indicated that "Until direct comparisons of [MNHN] No. 834 can be made with E. fuscus and E. brasiliensis , it seems advisable to retain Vespertilio hilarii Geoffroy as a synonym of E. brasiliensis (Desmarest) . The three paratypes of hilarii are much smaller than the holotype and appear to represent the species E. dorianus (Dobson) ", which according to Simmons (2005: 454) is a synonym of E. furinalis . On the basis of measurements of ZMB 3912 (forearm = 39.0mm; metacarp of 3 rd finger = 37.1mm; upper tooth row = 5.95mm; breadth across upper molars = 7.2mm; mandible = 11.8mm), we conclude that ZMB 3912 belongs to Eptesicus furinalis . MNHN No. 834 seems to be the only representative of E. brasiliensis within the type series.