Artibeus (Koopmania) concolor Peters, 1865

Simmons, Nancy B. & Voss, Robert S., 1998, The mammals of Paracou, French Guiana, a Neotropical lowland rainforest fauna. Part 1, Bats, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 237, pp. 1-219 : 114-115

Artibeus (Koopmania) concolor Peters

VOUCHER MATERIAL: 17 females (AMNH *266267, *266269, *267192, *267194, *267476, *267478, *267479, *267487, *267488, *267981, *267982, *267983; MNHN *1995.1116, *1995.1117, *1995.1118, *1995.1119, *1995.1120) and 7 males (AMNH *267193, *267195, *267477, *267502; MNHN *1995.1121, *1995.1122, *1995.1123); see table 41 for measurements.

IDENTIFICATION: Features useful for identifying Artibeus concolor were summarized by Handley (1987) and Acosta and Owen (1993); additional descriptions and measurements can be found in Husson (1962, 1978), Hill (1964), Barriga­Bonilla (1965), Linares (1969), Genoways and Williams (1979), Swanepoel and Genoways (1979), and Brosset and Charles­Dominique (1990). In contrast to the situation with most other species of Artibeus , no taxonomic problems are apparently associated with A. concolor , so identification is relatively straightforward. No subspecies are currently recognized (Handley, 1987; Acosta and Owen, 1993; Koopman, 1994).

Our voucher material, apparently the largest series available from any single locality, conforms closely with previous qualitative and morphometric descriptions of Artibeus concolor . In particular, measurements of our specimens confirm Brosset and Charles­ Dominique’s (1990) report of considerable size variation within French Guianan populations of this species. The size range among our specimens is even greater than they reported, yet we found no evidence that the Paracou sample includes more than one taxon.

FIELD OBSERVATIONS: We caught 24 Artibeus concolor at Paracou, of which 22 were taken in ground­level mistnets and 2 in elevated mistnets. Of the 22 ground­level captures, 3 were in well­drained primary forest, 7 were in swampy primary forest, 3 were in creekside primary forest, 7 were in manmade clearings, and 2 were over roadside puddles. The two elevated mistnet captures were made between 10 and 21 m over a narrow dirt road.