Gardnerycteris crenulata

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 : 68-69

Gardnerycteris crenulata

(É. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 1803)

Figure 16B

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL = 21): Estación Biológica Madre Selva (MUSM 32052–32055), Jenaro Herrera (AMNH 278488; CEBIOMAS 105; MUSM 869, 870, 5914), Nuevo San Juan (AMNH 272769, 272770, 272834; MUSM 13215–13217), Quebrada Blanco (MUSM 21198), San Vicente (FMNH 89038–89040, 89151, 89152); see table 31 for measurements.

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: An unspecified number of individuals of Gardnerycteris crenulata were captured at Anguila during the Tapiche-Blanco Rapid Biological Inventory (Escobedo-Torres, 2015). We captured two individuals at Frog Valley on 17 February 2019 and three more individuals at Tahuayo Farm on 19 February 2019. Gardnerycteris crenulata was also recorded using acoustic methods during the CEBIO bat course at Jenaro Herrera.

IDENTIFICATION: This species was formerly known as Mimon crenulatum , but phylogenetic analyses of molecular sequence data have shown that Mimon , as traditionally recognized (e.g., by Simmons and Voss, 1998), was polyphyletic (Dávalos et al., 2012, 2014; Rojas et al., 2016). Because the type species of Mimon is M. bennettii , and no generic name was available for M. crenulatum and M. koepckeae, Hurtado and Pacheco (2014) provided a new genus, Gardnerycteris (feminine in gender), for these closely related species. Subsequently, Hurtado and D’Elía (2018) completed a review of Gardnerycteris based on mitochondrial genes, one nuclear gene, and morphology, and recognized three species: G. crenulata (in eastern Venezuela, Trinidad, and the Guianas west into Ecuador, eastern Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil), G. koepckeae (in highland areas of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia [Morales-Martínez et al. 2020; Siles and Wallace, 2021]), and G. keenani (in southern Mexico southeastward into northwestern Venezuela, western Colombia, Ecuador, and extreme northwestern Peru).

Gardnerycteris crenulata is distinguished from other congeners by the following combination of traits: dorsal fur short and sparse, with a narrow, whitish (not yellowish) middorsal stripe; noseleaf with lateral hairs evenly distributed and about the same length (without a concentration of longer hairs at the apex); central rib of noseleaf hairless; skin of noseleaf uniformly pigmented (not darker distally); bright and conspicuous whitish auricular patches; ear <22 mm; borders of pinna wrinkled; inner lobe of pinna well developed; metacarpal III longer than metacarpal V; fringe of hairs present on uropatagium; anterior border of nasal bones U-shaped; deep median depression on rostrum; posterior border of braincase tapering, not rounded; high sagittal crest present; hard palate long, with U-shaped posterior border; and absence of a lingual flexus between protocone 10 and hypocone on M1 and M2 (Hurtado et al., 2014; Hurtado and Pacheco, 2014; Hurtado and D’Elía, 2018). Descriptions and measurements of G. crenulata have been provided by Handley (1960), Goodwin and Greenhall (1961), Husson (1962, 1978), Hill (1964), Gardner and Patton (1972), Genoways and Williams (1979), Swanepoel and Genoways (1979), Brosset and Charles- Dominique (1990), Pedro et al. (1994), Simmons and Voss (1998), Lim et al. (2005), Hurtado et al. (2014), Hurtado and Pacheco (2014), and Hurtado and D’Elía (2018).

Even after the removal of koepckeae and keenani from the synonymy of Gardnerycteris crenulata , several nominal subspecies remain: G. c. crenulata (eastern Venezuela, Trinidad, and the Guianas southward into the lower Amazon basin and along the Atlantic Coast of Brazil to Minas Gerais), G. c. longifolium (southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and Peru, western and central Brazil, and northern Bolivia), G. c. peruanum (eastern Peru at ca. 1700 m), and G. c. picatum (eastern Brazil) (Williams and Genoways, 2008; Tavares et al., 2010; Hurtado and D’Elía, 2018).

10 Hurtado and D’Elía (2018) incorrectly identified this cusp as the paracone.

In their recent review of the genus, Hurtado and D’Elía (2018) suggested that peruanum may actually be associated with G. koepckeae rather than with G. crenulata , and that picatum is best regarded as a junior synonym of G. c. crenulata . The nominal subspecies longifolium remains problematic: Hurtado and Pacheco (2014) recognized it as a synonym of G. c. crenulata , but more recently Hurtado and D’Elía (2018) suggested that the southern populations previously attributed to longifolium should be referred to that subspecies, but that more northern forms may represent a distinct subspecies. Pending a complete revision of the subspecies nomenclature for the Peruvian region, we prefer not to refer our material to subspecies.

Ascorra et al. (1993), Fleck et al. (2002), Hurtado and Pacheco (2014), and Hurtado and D’Elía (2018) all correctly identified their specimens from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve as Gardnerycteris crenulata . Our voucher material conforms to all previous qualitative and morphometric characterizations of the species.

REMARKS: Of 34 captures of Gardnerycteris crenulata accompanied by ecological data from our region, 30 were made in ground-level mistnets, 1 was made in an elevated net, and 3 were made in harp traps. Twenty-seven captures were made in primary forest and seven in secondary vegetation. No roosts of this species were encountered during our study.

Figures

FIG. 16. Photographs of A, an adult Chrotopterus auritus captured at Quebrada Blanco and B, an adult female (ROM 122118) Gardnerycteris crenulata captured at Jenaro Herrera. Photographs by Marco Tschapka (A) and Burton Lim (B).