Vampyrodes caraccioli (Thomas, 1889)

Velazco, Paúl M., Voss, Robert S., Fleck, David W. & Simmons, Nancy B., 2021, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 4: Bats, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2021 (451), pp. 1-201 : 121-122

Vampyrodes caraccioli (Thomas, 1889)

Figure 29

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL = 1): Quebrada Lobo (MUSA 15124); see table 51 for measurements.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: One individual of Vampyrodes caraccioli was captured at Tapiche during the Sierra del Divisor Rapid Biological Inventory (Jorge and Velazco, 2006), and we captured a single individual at El Chino Village on 18 February 2019 (fig. 29).

IDENTIFICATION: Before the revision by Velazco and Simmons (2011), Vampyrodes caraccioli was the sole member of the genus and was thought to range from Mexico to eastern Brazil. Two subspecies (V. c. caraccioli and V. c. major) were traditionally recognized (Koopman, 1994; Gardner, 2008j). After morphological, morphometric, and molecular analyses, Velazco and Simmons (2011) concluded that the two subspecies represented distinct species, of which only V. caraccioli sensu stricto is known to occur in South America east of the Andes.

Vampyrodes caraccioli can be distinguished from other cis-Andean stenodermatines by the following characteristics: prominent white dorsal stripe and conspicuous white facial stripes, bicolored dorsal fur, tricolored ventral fur, presence of a fringe of hairs on the edge of the uropatagium, lingual cingula absent at the bases of the metacones of the upper molars, lack of M3, the presence of two cuspules on the posterior cristid of the second upper premolar, and lingual cingulid absent on the first lower molar (Gardner, 2008j; Velazco and Simmons, 2011). Descriptions and measurements of V. caraccioli were provided by Husson (1954), Swanepoel and Genoways (1979), Lim et al. (2005), Velazco et al. (2010b), Velazco and Simmons (2011), Carvalho et al. (2014), Lopes et al. (2016), and Althoff et al. (2017). No subspecies are currently recognized (Velazco and Simmons, 2011).

Medina et al. (2015) identified the specimen from Quebrada Lobo as Vampyrodes caraccioli based only on external characters because the skull had not been removed from the body. Nevertheless, the provenance of the specimen in addition to the presence of a few characteristics observable in fluid specimens (presence of a fringe of hairs on the edge of the uropatagium, lack of M3, and the presence of two cuspules on the posterior cristid of the second upper premolar) confirms the identity of the specimens as V. caraccioli .

Figures

FIG. 29. Photograph of an adult male Vampyrodes caraccioli captured at El Chino Village. Photograph by Brock Fenton.