Dysopes (Molossus) gigas Peters, 1864

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 : 81

Dysopes (Molossus) gigas Peters, 1864

Peters, W.C.H. (1864) Über einige neue Säugethiere ( Mormops , Macrotus , Vesperus , Molossus, Capromys ), Amphibien ( Platydactylus, Otocryptis, Euprepes, Ungalia, Dromicus, Tropidontus, Xenodon, Hylodes ) und Fische ( Sillago, Sebastes, Channa, Myctophum, Carassius, Barbus, Capoeta, Poecilia, Saurenchelys, Leptocephalus ). Monatsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1864: 383 [381–399].

Valid name: Eumops perotis (Schinz, 1821)

Referred specimen (marked with type *): ZMB 2474 , skin and skull, male, juvenile; Rio Negro , Brazil; collected by J. Natterer.

Comment: Although the holotype of Dysopes (Molossus) gigas should be in ZMB it was not found during the research for this catalogue. Carter & Dolan (1978: 91) considered ZMB 2474 as “ holotype or syntype ”. However , the original description states: “Unsere Sammlung [= ZMB] besitzt nur ein einziges [...] junges Exemplar dieser Art, welches Otto in dem Gebirge Taburete [Loma Taburete], District Callajabas [Cayajábos, Mariel Distr., Pinar del Rio] auf Cuba gefangen hat” [our collection possesses only a single [...] specimen of this species, which Otto caught in the Taburete Mts., Callajabas Distr., Cuba]. According to this information ZMB 2474 cannot be the holotype .

Gundlach (1877: 26) indicated that Peters compared D. gigas with Molossus perotis Wied , which differs only in size (probably juvenile vs. adult) and this may be the reason that ZMB 2474 became marked with a type *. According to Gundlach (1877) he never observed this species on Cuba, and until present (Best et al. 1996: 1) Eumops perotis has never been reported for Cuba. The holotype specimen of D. gigas was presumably wrongly labelled by the collector (Otto) or upon receipt at ZMB (see also Centurio flavogularis Lichtenstein & Peters 1854 , above).