Vampyrodes Thomas, 1900

Velazco, PaúL M. & Simmons, Nancy B., 2011, Systematics and Taxonomy of Great Striped-Faced Bats of the Genus Vampyrodes Thomas, 1900 (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), American Museum Novitates 2011 (3710), pp. 1-36 : 12-15

Vampyrodes Thomas, 1900

Vampyrops: Thomas, 1889: 167 ; part; not Vampyrops Peters, 1865 .

Vampyrodes Thomas, 1900: 270 ; type species Vampyrops caraccioli Thomas, 1889 , by original designation; described as a subgenus of Vampyrops Peters.

DISTRIBUTION: Vampyrodes is known from southern Mexico southward to Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, northern, eastern, and western Brazil, Ecuador, eastern Peru, and northern Bolivia (fig. 6).

EMENDED DIAGNOSIS: Vampyrodes is a genus of medium to large-sized fruit-eating bats (FA 47.3–58.6 mm, GLS 25.1–29.1 mm, CCL 22.0– 25.7 mm; tables 4–5). Dorsal fur pale brown to dark brown, with individual hairs bicolored with pale base and darker tip; ventral fur slightly grayer than dorsal fur, with individual hairs tricolored, with a basal pale brownish band that makes up some 70% to 80% of the total length of each hair, a short dark brown (~ 10% of the total length of each hair) subterminal band, and a tiny pale brownish terminal band; dorsal stripe brilliant white and wide; conspicuous facials stripes, supraorbital facial stripes extend from the lateral margin of the noseleaf to the top of the head between the ears, malar stripes extend from the corner of the mouth to the base of the ears; folds in the pinnae are not well marked but are distinguishable; enamel surface of the upper and lower dentition with periky-

a The sample mean plus or minus one standard deviation, the observed range (in parentheses), and the sample size are provided for each sex.

b Holotype of V. caraccioli , a subadult of unknown sex.

c Holotype of V. ornatus , an adult female.

mata (fig. 7, top); sulcus mesial to P4 absent; lingual cingulae absent at the bases of the metacones of M1 and M2; M3 absent; p4 lingual accessory cuspule present; lingual cingulid absent on m1; stylid cusp mesial of the protoconid of m1 absent.

Vampyrodes is easily distinguished from Chiroderma by the presence of nasal bones (absent in Chiroderma ) and mesiodistally broad and buccolingually compressed upper incisors (slender and pointed in Chiroderma ); from Platyrrhinus and Uroderma by the absence of M3 (present in Platyrrhinus and Uroderma ); and from Vampyressa and Vampyriscus by its greater skull length (shorter in Vampyressa and Vampyriscus: GLS <24 mm).

REMARKS: Perikymata or “waves around the tooth” seen on some mammalian teeth are transverse lines on the enamel that are external manifestations of incremental lines of Retzius ( Moss-Salentijn et al., 1997). Perikymata present in Vampyrodes can be directly observed with the aid of a dissecting scope as long they have not been completely eroded by tooth wear. Poorly developed perikymata can be observed in species of Artibeus ( A. jamaicensis: AMNH 177758; A. lituratus: AMNH 260239) and Dermanura ( D. anderseni: AMNH 210822; D. cinerea: AMNH 29689; D. glauca: AMNH 24393). Perikymata have been reported in Artiodactyla ( Kierdorf et al., 2000) , Carnivora (present in Hyaenidae [ Ferretti, 2007] but absent in Canis and Felis [ Skobe et al., 1985]), = Notoungulata ( Gelfo et al., 2008), Perissodactyla ( Hillson, 2005; von Koenigswald et al., 2011), most Primates (including fossil and recent Hominidae ; Beynon and Wood, 1987; Maas and Dumont, 1999; Guatelli-Steinberg et al., 2004), Proboscidea ( Ferretti, 2008) , and some Rodentia ( Flynn and Morgan, 2005). This is the first record of perikymata in Chiroptera to our knowledge ( Lester and Hand, 1987; Lester et al., 1988).