Noctilio albiventris Desmarest, 1818

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 : 29

Noctilio albiventris Desmarest, 1818

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL = 9): Jenaro Herrera (MUSM 5918), Nuevo San Juan (AMNH 273085, 273092; MUSM 15241–15243), Quebrada Esperanza (FMNH 89013, 89014), San Vicente (FMNH 89015); see table 12 for measurements.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: None.

IDENTIFICATION: Noctilio albiventris is easily distinguished from N. leporinus by its smaller size (wingspan about 400 mm, length of foot <20 mm, forearm <70 mm, length of maxillary toothrow <8.5 mm) and feet that are shorter than the uropatagium (Hood and Pitocchelli, 1983; Gardner, 2008a; López-Baucells et al., 2018). Descriptions and measurements of N. albiventris were provided by Husson (1962, 1978), Davis (1976), Hood and Pitocchelli (1983), and Simmons and Voss (1998). Although our material can be confidently identified as N. albiventris by these criteria, the correct trinomen that applies to our material remains to be considered.

In his revision of Noctilio albiventris, Davis (1976) recognized four subspecies based on dif- ferences in size and coloration: affinis d’Orbigny, 1837; albiventris Desmarest, 1818 ; cabrerai Davis, 1976; and minor Osgood, 1910 . Hood and Pitocchelli (1983) followed Davis’ (1976) arrangement, but Gardner (2008a) reduced the number of recognized subspecies in N. albiventris to three, without discussion, by lumping affinis with albiventris (table 13). However, both Pavan et al. (2013) and Kahn et al. (2014) interpreted their respective molecular-phylogenetic results as supporting Davis’s (1976) subspecies classification, thus recognizing N. albiventris albiventris and N. a. affinis as valid taxa. Unfortunately, they applied these names differently, and since the solution will require a comprehensive approach, we recommend against formally recognizing subspecies of N. albiventris .

REMARKS: Ascorra et al. (1993: 540) reported a single capture of Noctilio albiventris “near a small artificial lake” at Jenaro Herrera; we assume that this specimen was caught in a mistnet, but whether at ground level or above was not explained. The only other ecological information about this species in our region is from Nuevo San Juan, where we found two roosting groups. The first, encountered on 11 September 1999, consisted of three individuals (of which only one adult male was collected) that were roosting in the company of Molossus rufus about 10 m above the ground inside a dead hollow tree on the bank of the Río Gálvez. The second group, encountered on 15 September 1999, consisted of 11 individuals, of which one adult male, four adult females, and five nursing young were captured ; the 11th individual, which escaped, was presum-