Tonatia brasiliense (Peters)

Simmons, Nancy B. & Voss, Robert S., 1998, The mammals of Paracou, French Guiana, a Neotropical lowland rainforest fauna. Part 1, Bats, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 237, pp. 1-219 : 87

Tonatia brasiliense (Peters)

VOUCHER MATERIAL: 3 females (AMNH *267103, *267104; MNHN *1995.1052) and 6 males (AMNH *267101, *267102, *267916, *267917; MNHN *1995.1053, *1995.1054); see table 29 for measurements.

IDENTIFICATION: Descriptions and measurements of Tonatia brasiliense from the Guianas and elsewhere can be found in Goodwin (1942), Swanepoel and Genoways (1979), Genoways and Williams (1984), and Brosset and Charles­Dominique (1990). No subspecies are currently recognized (Genoways and Williams, 1984; Koopman, 1994).

As the smallest member of its genus, Tonatia brasiliense is most likely to be confused with species of Micronycteris , which are also small gray­brown phyllostomines with large, rounded ears. Genoways and Williams (1984) mentioned several craniodental characters that can be used to distinguish these taxa, but failed to note one obvious external character: whereas all species of Micronyc­ teris have a pair of large dermal pads forming a ‘‘V’’ on the tip of the chin, the tip of the chin in T. brasiliense (and other congeners) has a U­shaped row of tiny dermal papillae ( Emmons, 1990, 1997). We also observed that T. brasiliense folds its ears back against the crown of the head when touched, a behavior seen in several other species of Tonatia (see below) but not in Micronycteris .

Our voucher material conforms closely with previous descriptions of Tonatia brasiliense , particularly those based on material from the Guianas. Probably because our series contains more individuals than do earlier collections from the region, it exhibits somewhat greater size variability than previously reported. However, measurements of our specimens fall within the range of variation previously documented for the species as a whole.

As remarked by Genoways and Williams (1984), Tonatia brasiliense as currently recognized may be composite. Should this prove to be the case, comparisons with published measurements (e.g., those in Goodwin [1942] and Swanepoel and Genoways [1979]) suggest that our specimens, along with others from the Guianas, would be referred to T. brasiliense rather than to other taxa currently treated as synonyms (e.g., minuta , nicaraguae, and venezuelae; Handley [1966], Gardner [1976], Jones and Carter [1976], Genoways and Williams [1984], Medellín and Arita [1989], Koopman [1993, 1994]).

FIELD OBSERVATIONS: All of the nine specimens of Tonatia brasiliense that we caught at Paracou were taken in ground­level mistnets: six in swampy primary forest and three in creekside primary forest.