Leptonycteris yerbabuenae (L. Martinez & Villa, 1940)

Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier, 2019, Phyllostomidae, Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 9 Bats, Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, pp. 444-583 : 514-515

56.

Lesser Long-nosed Bat

Leptonycteris yerbabuenae

French: Petit Leptonyctére / German: Kleine Mexiko-Blitenfledermaus / Spanish: Leptonicterio pequeno

Other common names: Sanborn’s Long-nosed Bat, Tequila Bat

Taxonomy. Leptonycteris nivalis yerbabuenae L. Martinez & Villa, 1940 ,

“Yerbabuena, Estado de Guerrero,” Mexico.

Taxonomy of L. yerbabuenae was confused during several decades of the 20™ century.

As a result, papers referring to L. yerbabuenae have been published under the names L. curasoae , L. sanborni , and L. nivalis . Leptonyctenis yerbabuenae was described originally as a subspecies of L. nivalis and then as a subspecies under the name L. n. sanborni , which was used by several authors. Eventually, it was recognized that those animals did not belong in L. nivalis but were a distinct species, which is how the oldest available name ( L. yerbabuenae ) came to be the name currently used. Taxonomy is now well sorted out. Monotypic.

Distribution. SW USA (S Arizona and SW New Mexico), most of Mexico (from Baja California E to Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, and S to Veracruz and Chiapas), and Central America in Guatemala, El Salvador, and W Honduras.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 74-90 mm (no externaltail), ear 16-21 mm, hindfoot 15-19 mm, forearm 51-55 mm; weight 15-28 g. The Lesser Long-nosed Bat is medium-sized for a phyllostomid, large for a New World nectarfeeding bat, and small for a species of Leptonycteris . Fur on back is mid-length and grayish brown to cinnamon; venter is paler. Rostrum is slightly elongated. Tongue is long, and its tip has elongated papillae that help “mop” nectar from inside flowers. Noseleaf is small and triangular. Eyes are large, and ears are small, separate, and triangular. Lower lip has V-shaped groove that serves as a receptacle for tongue as it moves in and out of the mouth. There is no external tail, but it is composed of three small caudal vertebrae. Uropatagium 1s narrow and almost completely naked. Calcar is short. Terminal third phalanx of third finger, the longest finger of the wing, is shorter than 15 mm. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 32 and FN = 60. X-chromosome is medium-small submetacentric, and Y-chromosome is minute acrocentric.

Habitat. Primarily dry tropical and desert habitats, from tropical deciduous forests to deserts and mixed forests, up to elevations of ¢. 2500 m (but mostly below 1000 m). Lesser Long-nosed Bats are associated primarily with deserts and dry tropical forests but can occur in other ecosystems. At mid-elevations, Lesser Long-nosed Bats can coexist with its sympatric congener, the Greater Long-nosed Bat ( L. nivalis ).

Food and Feeding. The Lesser.ong-nosed Bat feeds on nectar, pollen, and soft fruits. In Mexico and the USA, diet includes nectar, pollen, and fruit of many species of columnar cacti. It also eats nectar and pollen of many other plant species of Bombacaceae , Convolvulaceae , and Leguminosae. Spatiotemporally, diet can be dominated by columnar cacti such as saguaro ( Carnegiea gigantea), giant cardon ( Pachycereus pringler), and organ pipe ( Stenocereus thurberi) in summer in the Sonoran Desert; agaves ( Agave spp.) in spring and autumn at mid-elevations, including tequila agave for which it is a primary pollinator, thus one of its common names, Tequila Bat; and morning glory trees ( Ipomoea arborescens and others, Convolvulaceae ) and trees from the Malvaceae family (e.g. Pseudobombax ellipticum, Ceiba pentandra) in winter in tropical dry forests of western and southern Mexico. They also eat soft, juicy, sweet fruits, including those of several columnar cacti, such as garambullo ( Myrtillocactus geometrizans) and pitaya or organ pipe (S. thurber). Given spatiotemporal predictability of columnar cactus nectar and pollen, Lesser Long-nosed Bats tend to forage singly although several bats will forage around the same flowering cacti and chase each other. When resources are unpredictable, other bats including Fisheating Myotis ( Myotis vivesi) tend to forage in groups and maintain social communication among individuals. In Sonora, Mexico, Lesser Long-nosed Bats make an estimated 80-100 visits to cactus flowers to acquire 80 Kk] of energy needed every night.

Breeding. Lesser Long-nosed Bats seem to be polygynous. Females carry one embryo. There are two spatiotemporally segregated birth peaks: non-migratory females give birth to young in winter in dry forests ofwestern and southern Mexico, and migratory females give birth peak in summer in the Sonoran Desert of north-western Mexico and southwestern USA. Reproductive males smear their backs with feces, urine,saliva, and other products or metabolic byproducts. Resulting sebaceous, odiferous patch is very attractive to females and causes males with a more symmetrical patch to have fewer ectoparasites and presumably greater reproductive success than those with less symmetrical patches. Females move young to nurseries in the same cave before leaving to forage at night.

Activity patterns. Lesser Long-nosed Bats tend to leave their roosts c.1 hour after dusk. They fly long distances to foraging areas and remain active for an average of 6-6 hours/night, longer than other bats such as foliage gleaners: Fish-eating Myotis , Greater Myotis (M. myotis), Greater Mouse-tailed Bats (Rhinopoma microphyllum), and Egyptian Rousettes ( Rousettus aegyptiacus). Movements are rather predictable, and they follow the same route and feed in the same areas night after night. They roost primarily in caves but also culverts, mines, and buildings.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Lesser Long-nosed Bats live in large colonies of thousands of individuals. They move seasonally, and some females embark in a northward migration while pregnant to give birth in late spring or early summer in the Sonoran Desert of Baja California, Sonora, and Arizona. Summer maternity colonies are abandoned in autumn, and winters are spent in dry tropical forests of western, central, and southern Mexico. Another group of females remain year-round in western or central Mexico, giving birth to their offspring in winter. Reproductive females fly at least 50 km from roosts to foraging areas and back every night. Their route and foraging areas remain constant night after night. Individual foraging areas have been estimated at 0-24 km. Lesser Long-nosed Bats share roosts with many other bat species including the Greater Long-nosed Bat, the Mexican Long-tongued Bat ( Choeronycteris mexicana ), Pallas’s Long-tongued Bat ( Glossophaga soricina ), the Californian Leaf-nosed Bat ( Macrotus californicus ), the Little Big-eared Bat ( Micronycteris megalotis ), the Jamaican Fruit-eating Bat ( Artibeus jamaicensis ), Seba’s Short-tailed Bat, the Common Vampire Bat ( Desmodus rotundus ), the Hairy-legged Vampire Bat ( Diphylla ecaudata ), Peters’s Ghost-faced Bat ( Mormoops megalophylla), Parnell’s Common Mustached Bat ( Pteronotus parnellir), Davy’s Naked-backed Bat (P£. davyi), Townsend’s Big-eared Bat ( Corynorhinus townsendii), the Cave Myotis ( Myotis velifer), the Fringed Myotis (M. thysanodes), the Haired-legged Myotis (M. keaysi), the Brazilian Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis ), and the Mexican Funneleared Bat ( Natalus mexicanus ) and others.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Near Threatened on The IUCN Red List. The Lesser Long-nosed Bat was listed as endangered in the USA in 1988 and threatened in Mexico in 1993. After a recovery program was implemented in the 1990s, it was delisted in Mexico in 2013 and in the USA in 2018.

Bibliography. Arita & Humphrey (1988), Cole & Wilson (2006b), Egert-Berg et al. (2018), Frick et al. (2018), Horner et al. (1998), Medellin & Torres-Knoop (2012), Medellin et al. (2018).

Figures

47. Insular Single-leat Bat (Monophyllus plethodon), 48. Leach’s Single-leat Bat (Monophyllus redmani), 49. Commissaris’s L. ong-tongued Bat (Glossophaga commissaris), 50. Western Long-tongued Bat (Glossophaga morenoi), 51. Gray's Long-tongued Bat (Glossophaga leachii), 52. Miller's Long-tongued Bat (Glossophaga longirostris), 53. Pallas’s Long-tongued Bat (Glossophaga soricina), 54. Southern LLong-nosed Bat (Leptonyctenis curasoae), 55. Greater Long-nosed Bat (Leptonycteris nivalis), 56. Lesser Long-nosed Bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae), 57. Antillean Fruit-eating Bat (Brachyphylla cavernarum), 58. Cuban Fruit-eating Bat (Brachyphylla nana), 59. Jamaican Flower Bat (Phyllonycteris aphylla), 60. Cuban Flower Bat (Phyllonycteris poeyi), 61. Brown Flower Bat (Erophylla bombifrons), 62. Buffy Flower Bat (Erophylla sezekorni)

Distribution. SW USA (S Arizona and SW New Mexico), most of Mexico (from Baja California E to Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, and S to Veracruz and Chiapas), and Central America in Guatemala , El Salvador , and W Honduras .