Desmodus rotundus (É. Geoffroy, 1810)

Cláudio, Vinícius C., Barbosa, Gedimar P., Rocha, Vlamir J. & Rassy, Ricardo Moratelli Fabrício B., 2020, The bat fauna (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of Carlos Botelho State Park, Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil, including new distribution records for the state of São Paulo, Zoologia (e 36514) 37, pp. 1-32 : 8

Desmodus rotundus (É. Geoffroy, 1810)

Fig. 7

Taxonomy. Desmodus rotundus is the only species in Desmodus Wied-Newied, 1826 . Desmodontinae also includes other two species, Diaemus youngii (Jentink, 1893) and Diphylla ecaudata Spix, 1823 ( Kwon and Gardner 2008), all occurring in Brazil. Desmodus rotundus can be distinguished from the other two by the presence of an elongated thumb with two rounded basal pads ( D. youngii also presents an elongated thumb, but only one pad, while D. ecaudata presents a small thumb without pads). Desmodus rotundus also differs from D. youngii by the presence of a tiny calcar, which is absent in D. youngii ( Kwon and Gardner 2008, López-Baucells et al. 2016). Specimens from PECB (ZSP 006, 031; see Table 3 for measurements) have dark brown dorsal fur, with whitish basis and dark brown tips, ventral fur bicolored, with a gray basis and whitish/silver tips, elongated thumb with two basal pads.

Distribution. In Brazil the species is recorded in all biomes and states ( Tavares et al. 2008, Reis et al. 2017). In São Paulo, the species is widely distributed, occurring in all the vegetational formations, and also in urban areas ( Garbino 2016).

Field observations. We captured 18 individuals (5 males and 13 females) of D. rotundus , of which 16 were taken in February, March, April, June, July, August and October in ground-level mist-nets in sampling sites M2, M14, M16, M18, M19, M23, M24, M25, M29, M34, M36 and M39, in different elevations and plant physiognomies; and two on June in a mist-net elevated 8 m in sampling site M33 (Appendix 1). Two lactating females were captured in June.