Vampyressa voragine, Morales-Martínez & Rodríguez-Posada & Ramírez-Chaves, 2021

Morales-Martínez, Darwin M, Rodríguez-Posada, Miguel E & Ramírez-Chaves, Héctor E, 2021, A new cryptic species of yellow-eared bat Vampyressa melissa species complex (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Colombia, Journal of Mammalogy (J. Mammal.) 102 (1), pp. 90-100 : 93-96

Vampyressa voragine new species

Voragine’s yellow-eared bat

Figs. 2–4

Vampyressa melissa: Alberico et al. 2000: 55 (part) Vampyressa melissa: Tavares et al. 2014: 26 (part) Vampyressa melissa: Rodríguez-Posada et al. 2018: 1

Holotype.— Adult female, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales “Alberto Cadena García” of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia ( ICN) 21938, prepared as a skin, with extracted skull, postcranial skeleton, and preserved tissues, collected on 12 April 2015 by Diego Rolando Gutiérrez-Sanabria (field number 952). See Table 2 for external and craniodental measurements.

Type locality.— Colombia; Casanare, municipio Chámeza, vereda Brisas del Tonce , La Garantía Farm (5°15 ′ 11.88 ″ N, 72°51 ′ 46.8 ″ W), collected at 1,500 m a.s.l.

Paratypes.— Three additional specimens (two males, one female) are designated as paratypes: Adult male, ICN 21936 , prepared as skin with extracted skull, from the type locality, collected on 12 April 2015 by Diego Rolando Gutiérrez-Sanabria. Adult female, ICN 24768 , fluid-preserved with extracted skull, from Casanare, municipality of Chámeza, vereda San Rafael , San Rafael School (5°15 ′ 37.9 ″ N, 72°47 ′ 59.7 ″ W) at 1,404 m a.s.l., collected 8 August 2015 by Diego Rolando Gutiérrez-Sanabria. One male, IAvH-M 6761, prepared as a skin, extracted skull and postcranial skeleton, from Norte de Santander: Parque Nacional Natural Tamá (7°06 ′ N, 72°13 ′ W) at 1,600 m a.s.l.; collected 28 September 1999 by Yaneth Muñoz-Saba (field number YMS 920 ). External and craniodental measurements are summarized in Table 2 .

Distribution.— Vampyressa voragine is known from three localities in the eastern slope of the Cordillera Oriental in the departments of Casanare and Norte de Santander, Colombia, in an elevation range between 1,300 and 1,600 m a.s.l. ( Fig. 2 ).

Etymology.— The name voragine honors the first great Colombian novel “La Vorágine” written by José Eustacio Rivera, and published in 1896. The novel refers to a trip full of adventures from Bogotá toward the wild lowlands at the east of the Colombian Andes where the protagonists experienced the harsh conditions that settlers and indigenous people faced in the Colombian Llanos and Amazonian jungles. In the novel, the first part of the journey took place across the eastern versant of the Cordillera Oriental where the new species is distributed. We suggest that the common name of this species be the Voragine’s yellow-eared bat.

Diagnosis.— Vampyressa voragine is a medium-sized bat (FA = 37–37.8 mm; GLS = 20.71–21.34 mm). The dorsal fur is creamy brown with a three-banded pattern. Ventral coloration is gray with lighter tips giving a frosted appearance. The head has two pairs of wide and white facial stripes, the upper stripes extend to the middle of the ears. The ears have white tips. The skull is robust and longer than wide ( Fig. 3 ). The ethmoturbinal bones are convergent to the mesethmoid and the sphenorbital fissure is semicircular. The clinoid processes are absent. The inner upper incisors are convergent with highly asymmetrical bilobated tips. Inner lobes are ensiform and higher than the external lobes, these have a broad and rounded shape. Well-developed stylar cusp on the labial face of the M2 paracone with an evident notch. External and cranial measurements are smaller than V. elisabethae , V. melissa , and V. sinchi , and larger than those of V. thyone and V. pusilla ( Table 3 ).

Description.— Vampyressa voragine has creamy brown dorsal fur in adult specimens, and dull gray in the juvenile specimen, but always with a three-banded pattern. The basal and the terminal bands resemble similar coloration of the fur but 2/3 of the total length has pale beige coloration. Ventral coloration is gray with lighter tips giving a frosted appearance. The head has two pairs of wide and white facial stripes, the upper stripes extend to the middle of the ears. The ears have the same color as the dorsal fur with external borders white to cream. The tragus is white and its external edge has two definite lobes. The forearm and propatagium are densely haired. The uropatagium is furred on both surfaces and has a dense fringe of hairs with the longest hairs toward the midline. The tibia and foot are conspicuously haired. The third and fifth metacarpals are similar in length and the fourth metacarpal is shorter. Wing and interfemoral patagia are darker than dorsal fur.

The skull of V. voragine is robust and longer than wide. In dorsal view, the rostrum is widest above the anterior surface of the first molar and gets narrower caudally until the interorbital region, where begins the cranial expansion of the braincase. A longitudinal depression is evident in the midline between the nasals. Nasals are short with a rounded anterior emargination. The accessory medial foramen and the median premaxillary pit are near and are visible in dorsal view. The sagittal crest is present but poorly developed. In lateral view, the anterior border of the maxillary ramus of premaxilla has a slope at approximately 60° angle from the horizontal plane. The forehead and the rostrum form a smooth angle and the supraorbital region is slightly swollen. In ventral view, the incisive foramina are triangular and separated by a thin bony ridge. The hard palate is fenestrated and has a deep rounded depression behind the incisive foramina. The posterior border of the palate is emarginated, wider than deep with a rounded border. The hamular process of the pterygoid, the foramen ovale, and the postglenoid process are in the same horizontal plane.

Teeth are robust. Dental formula is 2/2, 1/1, 2/2, 2/3 × 2 = 30. The upper dental arcade is triangular with rounded angles on incisors and M2. The crowns of the upper inner incisors (I1) are bilobate. Inner lobes are ensiform and higher than the external lobes, which have a broad and rounded shape. The outer upper incisors (I2) are bilobate and their height is half or less that of the upper inner incisors. Upper canines are twice the height of the P4 and have a sulcus on the posterior surface. P3 is shorter than P4, being smaller than half of the P4 crown. The first upper molar (M1) is slightly smaller than the second upper molar (M2). M1 has a well-developed protocone, paracone, and a smaller metacone that has a small supernumerary cuspid on the internal face. M2 has a poorly developed protocone and metacone, and a large paracone with a well-developed stylar cusp on the labial face with an evident notch. Lower incisors are equal in size and weakly bifid. The lower canines have a developed posterior cingulum. Lower premolars are caniniform and the anterior (p2) is smaller than the posterior (p4). The p4 lacks a posterolabial cuspulid. The first lower molar (m1) is quadrate in occlusal view, with a large protoconid and a small hypoconid. The second lower molar (m2) has well-developed cuspids, the protoconid is small and blunt, the paraconid is well-developed, the metaconid and entoconid are joined across a continuous ridge forming an L-shaped with a bladelike appearance. The last lower molar (m3) is minute.

Comparisons.— Vampyressa voragine is differentiated easily from V. thyone and V. pusilla by its size. Vampyressa voragine is a medium-sized bat for the genus (FA = 37.0– 37.8 mm; GLS = 20.7–21.3), whereas V. pusilla and V. thyone are smaller (FA = 32.3–34.3 mm and 29.3–32.3 mm, respectively; GLS = 19.00– 20.6 mm and 17.1–19.2 mm, respectively). Vampyressa voragine is the smallest species of the V. melissa complex ( Table 3 ). Although most cranial and external measurements overlap among species of the complex, in V. voragine the GLS and MTRL are smaller and do not overlap with those of other species of the genus ( Table 3 ). Externally, V. voragine has grayish or whitish base and border of the pinnae, whereas other species of the complex have a yellow base and border of the pinnae. The upper inner incisors’ crowns are convergent and bilobate with asymmetrical tips, where the inner lobes are ensiform and higher than the external lobes which have a broad and rounded shape, whereas other species of the complex have bifid incisors with symmetrical tips equal in form. The M 2 in V. voragine has a large paracone with a well-developed additional stylar cusp on the labial face and an evident notch, whereas other species of the complex have the stylar edge of the paracone with a continuum or steep slope but without an evident cusp. Vampyressa voragine has the ethmoturbinal bones convergent and in contact with the mesethmoid plate, while the other three species of the complex have these bones parallel to the mesethmoid plate ( Fig. 4 ).

emargination on the middle of the anterior edge of the nasals (deep in V. sinchi ), the length and width of the mesopterygoid fossa is the same (longer than wide in V. sinchi ), in lateral view, the postglenoid processes are well-developed and extend to the same level of the hamular processes of the pterygoids (postglenoid processes are well-developed and extend below the level of the hamular processes of the pterygoids in V. sinchi ). Vampyressa voragine does not have clinoid processes, which are present in V. melissa .

Vampyressa voragine can be differentiated from V. elisabethae because the former has a median premaxillary pit (absent in V. elisabethae ), a shallow emargination in the middle of the anterior edge of the nasals (absent in V. elisabethae ), in rostral view the mesethmoid plate appears slim (conspicuously thicker in V. elisabethae ), the sphenorbital opening in the cranium is a foramen (a fissure in V. elisabethae ), presence of a third lower molar (absent in V. elisabethae ). Compared with V. sinchi , V. voragine is notably smaller in all its measurements ( Table 3 ), has a shallow

Figures

Fig. 2.—Geographic distribution of the four species of the Vampyressa melissa complex. Stars are V. voragine sp. nov. from Colombia. Pentagons are localities of collection of V. elisabethae from Panama. Squares represent V. sinchi from Colombia. Circles are V. melissa from Colombia, Ecuador , and Peru . Black symbols are the type localities of each species .

Fig. 3.—Dorsal, ventral, and lateral views of the skull and lower jaw of the holotype of Vampyressa voragine sp. nov. (ICN 21938).

Fig. 4.—Comparative morphology of Vampyressa melissa (left, ICN 23802♀) and Vampyressa voragine sp. nov. (right, ICN 21938♀). (A and B) Morphology of ethmoturbinal bones with respect to the mesethmoid; and the differences in bilobated morphology and shape of inner upper