Published December 31, 1998 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Desmodus rotundus

  • 1. Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA

Description

Desmodus rotundus (E. Geoffroy)

VOUCHER MATERIAL: 3 females (AMNH *267211, *267504; MNHN *1995.985) and 2 males (AMNH *267503, *267505); see table 11 for measurements.

IDENTIFICATION: Numerous authors have provided descriptions and measurements of Desmodus rotundus, including Husson (1962, 1978), Swanepoel and Genoways (1979), Hall (1981), Koopman (1988), and Greenhall et al. (1983). Two subspecies are recognized by some authors (e.g., Hall, 1981; Jones and Carter, 1976; Greenhall et al., 1983): D. r. rotundus Geoffroy (1810) and D. r. murinus Wagner (1840). Whereas Cabrera (1958) and Husson (1962, 1978) referred all South American specimens to D. r. rotundus, Jones and Carter (1976) and Greenhall et al. (1983) gave the range of D. r. murinus as extending from Mexico southward throughout northern South America to Amazonia. Unfortunately, no data were presented to support either the differentiation of these two forms or their geographic distribution. Although we are aware of some potentially significant geographic variation within D. rotundus, it is not currently possible to distinguish subspecies in the absence of a comprehensive revision.

Our material of Desmodus rotundus corresponds closely to that described from Surinam by Husson (1962, 1978) and from French Guiana by Brosset and Charles­Dominique (1990).

FIELD OBSERVATIONS: All of the five Desmodus rotundus we captured at Paracou were taken in ground­level mistnets. Two individuals were taken in well­drained primary forest, two in swampy primary forest, and one in a manmade clearing.

Notes

Published as part of Simmons, Nancy B. & Voss, Robert S., 1998, The mammals of Paracou, French Guiana, a Neotropical lowland rainforest fauna. Part 1, Bats, pp. 1-219 in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 237 on pages 46-47, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4545052

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Family
Phyllostomidae
Genus
Desmodus
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Chiroptera
Phylum
Chordata
Scientific name authorship
E. Geoffroy
Species
rotundus
Taxon rank
species

References

  • Husson, A. M. 1962. The bats of Suriname. Zool. Verh. Rijksmus. Nat. Hist. (Leiden) 52: 282 pp. 1 30 pls.
  • Genoways, H. H., and S. L. Williams 1979. Records of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Suriname. Ann. Carnegie Mus. 48: 323 - 335.
  • Hall, E. R. 1981. Mammals of North America, 2 nd ed. New York: Wiley and Sons.
  • 1988. Systematics and distribution. In A. M. Greenhall and U. Schmidt (eds.), Natural history of vampire bats: 1 - 17. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
  • Greenhall, A. M., G. Joermann, and U. Schmidt 1983. Desmodus rotundus. Mamm. Species 202: 6 pp.
  • Jones, J. K., Jr., and D. C. Carter 1976. Annotated checklist with keys to subfamilies and genera. In R. J. Baker, J. K. Jones, Jr., and D. C. Carter (eds.), Biology of bats of the New World family Phyllostomidae, pt. 1: 7 - 38. Spec. Publ. Mus. Texas Tech Univ. 10.
  • Wagner, J. A. 1840. Die Saugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur, mit Beschreibungen von Dr. Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber. Supplementband, 1 Abt. Die Affen und Flederthiere. [First part of Wagner's supplement to Schreber's multivolume work.] Erlangen: Expedition des Schreber'schen saugthier- und des Esper'schen Schmetterlingswerkes, etc.
  • Cabrera, A. 1958. Catalogo de los mamiferos de America del Sur. Rev. Museo Argent. Cienc. Nat. '' Bernardino Rivadavia' ' (Cienc. Zool.) 4 (1): 307 pp.
  • Brosset, A., and P. Charles-Dominique 1990. The bats from French Guiana: a taxonomic, faunistic and ecological approach. Mammalia 54: 509 - 559.