Chiroderma salvini, Dobson, 1878

Garbino, Guilherme S. T., Lim, Burton K. & Tavares, Valéria Da C., 2020, Systematics of big-eyed bats, genus Chiroderma Peters, 1860 (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), Zootaxa 4846 (1), pp. 1-93 : 16

The salvini complex

The morphological analyses suggest a species of Chiroderma exclusive to the Pacific versant of western–north-western México, north of the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The oldest available name for this lineage is scopaeum of Handley (1966a). The mitochondrial DNA analyses also recovered a haplogroup from western México distinct in most sequences from individuals from Central and South America we diagnosed morphologically as salvini , partly corroborating our morphology-based conclusion. However, three specimens, from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panamá, had a salvini phenotype but were nested in the western México clade. In the taxonomy section dealing specifically with scopaeum we discuss the implications of these results, which suggest a paraphyletic salvini if scopaeum is recognized as a full species.

Chiroderma salvini comprises a clade containing specimens from Costa Rica, Panamá, Bolivia, Perú, and Venezuela supported by morphology, geographic distribution, and mitochondrial DNA sequences, that also included haplotypes of C. scopaeum . The species most similar morphologically to C. salvini is C. villosum , from which it can be distinguished by larger size and by several qualitative features. It occurs in sympatry with C. gorgasi , C. trinitatum , C. v. jesupi , and C. v. villosum , and there is a probable contact zone with C. scopaeum in the state of Veracruz, eastern México ( Table 6).

Chiroderma scopaeum comprises a haplogroup, with specimens from México, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panamá having high support values in the phylogenetic analyses. However, the specimens from western México are morphologically distinct from Central American and eastern Mexican specimens, which we identify as C. salvini . We consider scopaeum to be a valid species, restricted to western/northwestern México.