Peropteryx pallidoptera Lim & Engstrom & Reid & Simmons & Voss & Fleck 2010, new species
Creators: name: Lim, Burton K.
name: Engstrom, Mark D.
name: Reid, Fiona A.
name: Simmons, Nancy B.
name: Voss, Robert S.
name: Fleck, David W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Chiroptera
Emballonuridae
Peropteryx
Peropteryx pallidoptera

description: Peropteryx pallidoptera, new species
Pale-winged Doglike Bat
Figures 1, 2, 3
HOLOTYPE: An adult male (ROM 104396) collected 66 km S of Pompeya Sur (00 ° 48 9 S, 76 ° 24 9 W), Orellana Province, Ecuador by F.A. Reid, and F. Sornoza (field number F37227) on 8 May 1995. The holotype was prepared as a skin, skull, and partial skeleton.
PARATYPES: An adult male (AMNH 74107) prepared as a skin and skull collected at Orosa (03 ° 26 9 S, 72 ° 08 9 W), Amazon River, Loreto, Peru, by Alfonso and Ramón Olalla on 28 November 1926. Seventeen individuals prepared as fluid-preserved specimens collected at Nuevo San Juan (05 ° 14 9 50 0 S, 73 ° 09 9 50 0 W, 150 m above sea level), Río Gálvez, Loreto, Peru, by Robert S. Voss and David W. Fleck in 1998 and 1999, including 1 adult male (MUSM 13226), 14 adult females (AMNH 272671, AMNH 272726, AMNH 272854, AMNH 272855, AMNH 272827, AMNH 273042, AMNH 273116, AMNH 273185, MUSM 13228, MUSM 13230, MUSM 15246, MUSM 15249, MUSM 15250, MUSM 15252) and 2 subadult females (MUSM 13227, MUSM 13229).
DISTRIBUTION: The new species is currently known from just three localities in primary lowland forests of eastern Ecuador and northern Peru at elevations, 400 m above sea level. It is found sympatrically with P. kappleri and P. leucoptera at Nuevo San Juan. The new species and P. macrotis have overlapping distributions in the western Amazon but their closest points of documented occurrence are approximately 50 km apart (between Orosa and Puerto Indiana on the Amazon River of Peru).
ETYMOLOGY: The specific epithet refers to the pale wings and is compounded from the Latin words pallidus (‘‘pale’’) and ptera (‘‘wing’’).
MEASUREMENTS: External measurements are presented in table 1 and cranial measurements are presented in table 2 for Peropteryx pallidoptera and other congeneric species.
DIAGNOSIS: Superficially, Peropteryx pallidoptera appears most similar to P. leucoptera because they both have transparent wings. However, the new species has paler brown arms and digits (dark brown in P. leucoptera), the skin from the wing tip to the elbow is translucent and evenly colored with a tinge of brown (gradually darkens in color from wing tip to body in P. leucoptera; fig. 1), the ears are not connected by a band of skin, the rostrum of the skull is not broad, and the lateral pterygoid pits are not as large and deep as they are in P. leucoptera (fig. 2). In contrast, P. pallidoptera is morphologically similar to P. kappleri, P. macrotis, and P. trinitatis with the ears separated, rostrum of the skull not broad, and the lateral pterygoid pits small and shallow (fig. 2). However, the new species does not have dark brown wings and digits, the rostrum is not inflated dorsally, and the posterior border of the mesopterygoid extension is not level with the anterior border of the basisphenoid and lateral pterygoid pits, all of which are characters seen in P. kappleri, P. macrotis, and P. trinitatis. Furthermore, P. pallidoptera has a tiny peglike upper anterior premolar similar to that of P. trinitatis but different from those of P. kappleri and P. macrotis; the latter two species have a slightly larger tooth, bearing a distinct posterior cusp. Peropteryx kappleri is the largest species in the genus with no overlap in forearm length and cranial measurements (except postorbital constriction) with the other species (tables 1 and 2). In general, P. pallidoptera is smaller in cranial size than P. leucoptera, P. macrotis, and P. kappleri, but it is larger than P. trinitatis. This size gradation is most evident in same-sex comparisons of condyloincisive length (table 3).
1 Pregnant (not included in mean or range).
2 Measurements of holotype from Thomas (1924).
3 Holotype.
1 Measurements of holotype from Thomas (1924). 2 Greatest length of skull to front of canine. 3 Length from condyle to front of canine.
DESCRIPTION: The new species is a medium-sized Peropteryx (table 2). The dorsal fur is relatively long (approximately 8 mm) and is a uniform medium brown with slightly paler hair bases. The ventral fur is similar but slightly lighter in color. The ears are brown and are not in contact with each other, although they are close together on the forehead. The interfemoral membrane is brown, as is the wing membrane from the body to the elbow, but the distal portion is translucent with a tinge of brown (fig. 1). The arms and digits of the wings are medium brown. There is a poorly developed wing sac situated on the leading edge of the propatagium with an outward lateral opening.
The skull of P. pallidoptera has slender postorbital processes and a relatively narrow rostrum, but the rostrum is not dorsally inflated. The relatively shallow, undivided basisphenoid pit has two small anterolateral pterygoid pits and the mesopterygoid extension protrudes posteriorly into the basisphenoid region (fig. 2). The upper anterior premolar is tiny and peglike. The dental formula is i 1/3, c 1/1, p 2/2, m 3/3 with a total of 32 teeth.
COMMENTS: The cranial measurements for males of P. pallidoptera are all within the observed range of variation for females (table 2), which suggests that there is little or no sexual dimorphism in skull size. However, although the sample size for male P. pallidoptera is small (N 5 2), males are smaller than females with no overlap in forearm length and weight (table 1). In contrast, females of P. macrotis are significantly larger than males (p, 0.02) for all cranial measurements except breadth of braincase and postorbital constriction. Similarly, females of P. macrotis are significantly larger than males (p, 0.05) for all external measurements except length of tail and length of tragus. Brosset and Charles- Dominique (1990) did not observe sexual dimorphism for P. trinitatis but they only compared 1 male and 1 female. Although our sample size was not much better (at 2 males and 2 females), females were larger for all cranial measurements except postorbital constriction and there was no overlap in range (table 2). The male P. trinitatis reported by Brosset and Charles-Dominique (1990) was large and similar to our females except for maxillary toothrow length. However, with larger sample sizes for external measurements (10 males and 10 females), females of P. trinitatis are significantly larger (p, 0.003) than males except for length of tail and length of tragus. The sample sizes for P. kappleri and P. leucoptera were too small for making meaningful comment on cranial sexual size dimorphism. External measurements suggest that females of P. kappleri are larger than males (p, 0.005 for total length, forearm length, and weight), but there is no indication of sexual dimorphism in any of the external measurements for P. leucoptera.
NATURAL HISTORY
ECUADOR: Peropteryx pallidoptera was one of 66 species of bats that we captured in Block 16 in 1995 and 1996 (Reid et al., 2000). The holotype was caught in a mist net set at the entrance to a small cave next to a muddy, spring-fed saladero (mineral-rich seep) that periodically flooded the surrounding forest. The cave appeared to have been used primarily as a night roost, because few bats were found to occupy it in the daytime.
Another six specimens of Peropteryx pallidoptera (easily recognized as such by their transparent wing tips) were captured and released by Engstrom, who netted them over a larger saladero (at least 1 km in diameter) located near the edge of the Tiputini River about 10 minutes by boat north of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (00 ° 38 9 S, 76 ° 09 9 W). The small stream that fed this saladero tumbled over the edge of a cliff ca. 10 m high, and a shallow cave was present behind the waterfall. The bats apparently used the cave as a diurnal roost: Engstrom saw small, brown emballonurids in the cave before it got dark, and he caught the six P. pallidoptera in the net nearest the cave exit at dusk.
PERU: We recorded a total of 58 species of bats at Nuevo San Juan in 1998 and 1999 (Fleck et al., 2002). Of 503 recorded bat captures at this locality, 372 were in mist nets and 311 were made at diurnal roosts. All 17 specimens of Peropteryx pallidoptera from Nuevo San Juan were taken from roosts. In total, we found 10 roosts occupied by this species in a variety of circumstances as described below (numbers refer to entries in a field catalog of bat roosts).
Roost 2: Dark cavities among the roots and buttresses of a fallen tree in well-drained primary forest. Exactly where the bats were roosting is unknown because they had been spooked by kids who were shooting at them with arrows. A total of eight bats were collected as they perched on nearby tree trunks. Three (one adult male, one adult female, and one subadult female) were Peropteryx pallidoptera and five were Saccopteryx bilineata; an unknown number of either or both species might have escaped (22 May 1998).
Roost 6: A half-open hollow log (about 50 cm inside diameter) in old secondary growth near a stream. Two bats were found roosting here, only one of which (an adult female Peropteryx pallidoptera) was collected (11 June 1998).
Roost 15: An undercut earth bank in the side of a stream gully in well-drained primary forest. Two adult female and one subadult female Peropteryx pallidoptera occupied this roost, where they were found hanging well apart from one another (30 June 1998).
Roost 20: A small dark cavity of roots and earth at the base of a large fallen tree in welldrained primary forest. Two bats were found roosting here about 50 cm above the ground, of which only one (an adult female Peropteryx pallidoptera) was collected (8 July 1998).
Roost 22: A dark horizontal chamber under a buttress of a fallen tree in well-drained primary forest. Two adult female Peropteryx pallidoptera were found roosting here, about 80 cm above the ground (8 July 1998).
Roost 31: A deep armadillo burrow in the side of a stream headwater gully in welldrained primary forest. One adult female Peropteryx pallidoptera was found roosting here in the company of at least two Micronycteris matses and three Carollia brevicauda. No bats were seen to escape this roost by flying out of it, but some might have escaped by flying deeper inside (4 September 1999).
Roost 56: The unmodified leaf of a wild banana plant in hilltop primary forest. The single bat (a pregnant female Peropteryx pallidoptera) observed and collected here was hanging from the middle of the leaf about 1 m above the ground (16 September 1999).
Roost 73: A hole in the ground in the side of a stream headwater gully on a hillside in well-drained primary forest. Two bats were observed roosting here, of which one (a pregnant female Peropteryx pallidoptera) was collected (22 September 1999).
Roost 77: A hole in the side of a stream headwater gully in hilltop primary forest. Four bats were observed using this roost, of which two were collected. One of those collected was an adult female Peropteryx pallidoptera, and the other was an adult male P. leucoptera (23 September 1999).
Roost 102: The undercut bank of a small stream in well-drained primary forest. Only a single bat (an adult female Peropteryx pallidoptera) was observed and collected here (11 October 1999).
Roost 147: The ‘‘underside of a log’’ [as described by the Matses collector; presumably elevated somehow above the ground] in well-drained primary forest in a valley bottom. A single lactating adult female Peropteryx pallidoptera was collected here, but it seems likely that one or more nursing young may have been present but unobserved (27 October 1999).
Roost 154: The underside of a fallen tree in primary upland forest near a small stream. A single female Peropteryx pallidoptera was in the roost (2 November 1999).
The specimen from Orosa was collected by Alfonso and Ramón Olalla, members of an Ecuadorean family of professional collectors employed by the American Museum of Natural History, who worked at or near the mouth of the Río Orosa on the right (south) bank of the Amazon from 30 August to 11 December 1926. According to Wiley (in press), the Olallas’ camp at Orosa must have been in the floodplain of the Amazon, which is so wide at this point (about 15 km) that most of their specimens certainly came from floodplain habitats. Although the forest within several kilometers of the riverbank at the Olallas’ presumed campsite (ca. 3 ° 31 9 31 0 S, 73 ° 11 9 22 0 W; Wiley, in press) is seasonally flooded varzea, the river was probably at or near its lowest annual stage in August– December, so this habitat would have been easy to traverse on foot.
description: Published as part of Lim, Burton K., Engstrom, Mark D., Reid, Fiona A., Simmons, Nancy B., Voss, Robert S. & Fleck, David W., 2010, A New Species of Peropteryx (Chiroptera: Emballonuridae) from Western Amazonia with Comments on Phylogenetic Relationships within the Genus, pp. 1-20 in American Museum Novitates 3686 on pages 3-14, DOI: 10.1206/691.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4735520