Lasiurus ebenus Fazzolari-Corrêa, 1994

Cláudio, Vinícius C., Barbosa, Gedimar P., Novaes, Roberto Leonan M., Rassy, Fabrício B., Rocha, Vlamir J. & Moratelli, Ricardo, 2018, Second record of Lasiurus ebenus (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae), with comments on its taxonomic status, Zootaxa 4403 (3), pp. 513-522 : 516-519

Lasiurus ebenus Fazzolari-Corrêa, 1994

Black hairy-tailed bat

Holotype. Adult male collected at Parque Estadual da Ilha do Cardoso (25°05'S, 47°59'W, elev. 40 m), São Paulo, Brazil ( Fazzolari-Corrêa 1995). Skin, partial skeleton and skull are deposited in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo ( MZUSP 28125).

Other specimen. Adult male (MN 83982) composed by whole body (in alcohol) with the skull removed, collected at Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho (24°10'S, 47°58'W, elev. 630 m), São Paulo, Brazil.

Diagnosis. Black wing membranes; dorsal and ventral pelage almost entirely black; first upper premolar present; and medium sized within the genus, with forearm length close to 45.5 mm.

Description. Lasiurus ebenus is a medium-sized species (body mass 12.5 g, 14 g; forearm length 45.6 mm, 45.7mm; other measurements are in Table 1). Membranes, muzzle, lip and ear borders are black. One-third to onehalf of the proximal portion of the interfemoral membrane and the ventral region of the humeri and forearms have bone-brown to dark-brown hairs. Ears are broad and rounded; tragus is triangular and measures ca. 50% of the height of the ear; hindfoot small, less than two-thirds of the length of the tibia; the calcar is about twice as long as the hindfoot, and about as long as the free margin of the interfemoral membrane. Pelage color is black in general, with dorsal fur tricolored (black basal band, bone-brown to dark-brown in the middle, black tips), and ventral fur bicolored (ca. 2/3 of the basis is bone-brown, and 1/3 of the tip is black); without stripes, frosting or spots ( Fig. 1 ).

Dental formula is i 1 /3 c 1/1 p 2/ 2 m 3/3 = 32. The second premolar is double-rooted, the rostrum is relatively short, and the braincase is broad, with a low sagittal crest.

Comparisons. Rostrum short, sagittal crest weak, first upper premolar (P1) present, and fourth upper premolar (P4) double rooted indicate that L. ebenus belongs to the red bats group (see Baird et al. 2015), which also includes L. atratus , L. blossevillii , L. borealis , L. castaneus , L. degelidus , L. egregius , L. minor , L. pfeifferi , L. seminolus , and L. varius (see Baird et al. 2015; Fazzolari-Corrêa 1994). This group is represented in Brazil by L. blossevillii , L. castaneus , L. ebenus and L. egregius (see Nogueira et al. 2014). Lasiurus ebenus can be distinguished from these species by the pelage almost entirely black, and wing membranes black, which are diagnostic for the species. The pelage is reddish above and paler below in L. blossevillii ; chestnut above and dark-brown below, with buffy-yellow and whitish patches on shoulders in L. castaneus ; and reddish above and dark brown below, with bright red tips in L. egregius . Lasiurus ebenus (45.6 mm, 45.7 mm) is larger than L. blossevillii (forearm length: ~ 42 mm) and similar in size to L. castaneus (~ 45 mm) and L. egregius (forearm larger than 48 mm). Beyond fur color, L. ebenus can be distinguished from L. castaneus in the hindfoot length (11 mm in ebenus , 8 mm in castaneus ), and the braincase breadth (7.6 mm in ebenus , 8.2 mm in castaneus ; see Bianconi & Pedro, 2007; Fazzolari-Corrêa 1994; Handley 1960; Reid 2009).

Lasiurus cinereus and L. ega also occur in Brazil (see Nogueira et al. 2014). The pelage of L. ega varies from pale whitish-buff to yellowish and orange, with ventral fur generally paler. L. cinereus has dorsal fur tricolored (basis and tips dark-brown, intermediate band yellowish, with a frosting appearance in general), and ventral fur bicolored (basis dark-brown, tips light-brown). These species are allocated in other morphological groups, and can be also distinguished from L. ebenus by a suite of qualitative and quantitative traits ( Barquez et al. 1999; González 1989; Kurta & Lehr 1995; Vieira 1942).

Distribution. L. ebenus is known from two localities in the south portion of the Serra do Mar mountain chain ( Fig. 4 ), which is the largest remnant of Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil. Both localities are composed by ombrophilous dense forest. The holotype comes from Ilha do Cardoso State Park, Cananéia, São Paulo, Brazil (25°05'S, 47°59'W, elev. 40 m); and the other specimen (MN 83982) comes from Carlos Botelho State Park, Sete Barras, São Paulo, Brazil, on the eastern slope of the Serra do Mar mountain chain (24°10'S, 47°58'W, elev. 630 m). The second record for the species is 101 kilometers away from the type locality ( Fig. 4 ).

Natural history. The holotype of L. ebenus was captured in a mist net placed over a stream in continuous forest. MN 83982 was captured on the lowest shelf of the mist net, which was about 1 m above the water. The water level was about one foot deep, and the substrate is composed by rocks and sand in a lotic water system. Representatives of other species of Lasiurus are often netted in similar conditions, feeding on insects that fly close to watercourses ( Handley 1960, 1996; Kurta & Lehr 1995; Villalobos-Chaves & Dick 2014). We speculate that L. ebenus forages on watercourses and streams, catching insects in flight, similarly to its congeners. Bat flies collected in the holotype of L. ebenus were later described by Graciolli (2003) as a new species, Basilia insularis , from which the only reported host is still L. ebenus ( Graciolli et al. 2007) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Ventral (A) and dorsal (B) views of the adult male of Lasiurus ebenus (MN 83982) from Carlos Botelho State Park, São Paulo, Brazil.

FIGURE 4. Occurrence localities for L. ebenus in São Paulo, Brazil: type locality in the Ilha do Cardoso State Park (circle); new record (MN 83982) for the Carlos Botelho State Park (diamond). The green area representsthe AtlanticForest remnants.