Seventeen Species of Bats Recorded fromBarro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone BY E. RAYMOND HALL and WILLIAM B. JACKSON University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 5, No. 37, pp. 641-646 December 1, 1953 University of Kansas LAWRENCE 1953 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Volume 5, No. 37, pp. 641-646December 1, 1953 UNIVERSITY OF KANSASLawrence, Kansas PRINTED BYFERD VOILAND, JR. , STATE PRINTERTOPEKA, KANSAS1953 25-264 Seventeen Species of Bats Recorded from Barro Colorado Island, PanamaCanal Zone By E. RAYMOND HALL and WILLIAM B. JACKSON Our aim is to bring up to date the list of kinds of bats actually knownfrom Barro Colorado Island, Panamá. In 1952 Samuel T. Dickenson, Marguerite Schultz, George P. Young, and E. Raymond Hall spent the first17 days of April (except Mrs. Schultz who left on April 8) on BarroColorado Island. On eight evenings a silk net, 30 feet long and 7 feethigh with a 3/4-inch mesh, was stretched in an open place to interceptbats. On the first five nights it was stretched in the laboratoryclearing. On April 6 the net was erected in the forest across theBarbara Lathrop Trail 25 feet past its entrance; on the 7th and 8th thenet was placed across the Snyder-Molino Trail at the Termite Cemetery, 150 yards southwest of the new (built in 1952) laboratory. William B. Jackson was on the island from January 30 to June 6, 1952, asa member of a group from the American Museum of Natural History. On May4 he set the bat net across Allee Creek at the beginning of the BarbaraLathrop Trail, and from May 5 to 27 he set the net in the TermiteCemetery where it was mounted between two small trees with its loweredge approximately 5 feet above the ground. Unless otherwise stated, specimens were caught in this net. On Barro Colorado Island one aim is to preserve the biota and naturalconditions with as little interference from man as possible. Consequently most of the bats captured were released after beingwing-banded by Jackson with U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service bat bands;but an attempt was made, with the permission of Mr. James Zetek, Resident Custodian of the Canal Zone Biological Area administeredthrough the Smithsonian Institution, to save one or a few specimens ofeach species for positive identification. Catalogue numbers are of theUniversity of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, unless otherwiseindicated. We are obliged to Mr. Colin C. Sanborn and Mr. Robert J. Russell for checking our identifications of the specimens. Assistancewith field work is acknowledged from the Kansas University EndowmentAssociation, the United States Navy, Office of Naval Research, throughcontract No. NR-161-791, and Mr. James Zetek. Six species of bats were recorded from Barro Colorado Island byProfessor Robert K. Enders in his "Mammalian Life Histories from BarroColorado Island, Panamá" (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. , at Harvard College, 78: 383-502, 5 pls. , October, 1935). With his list as a starting placewe can offer a revised list as follows: Saccopteryx bilineata (Temminck). --Nos. 45061, 45062, 45097, and 402 and404 of Jackson. Nonpregnant female No. 45061 captured on April 3 weighed7. 0 grams; No. 45062 captured on April 4 contained one embryo 22 mm. Long. It was common to see several bats of this species, not in acluster but with a few inches of space between any one bat and itsneighbors, on the vertical screens that covered the airways beneath theeaves of the buildings. A colony was established in Zetek House (atrail-end house on the western side of the Island), and severalindividuals often were seen in the Tower House. As many as 50individuals could be found at the Van Tyne Big Tree (_BombacopsisFendleri_) where they hung singly in the shaded inter-buttress spacesand on the exposed trunk sometimes up to a height of 100 feet. Occasionally several individuals would be seen in inter-buttress spacesof large trees on other parts of the Island. These bats were more alertduring the daylight hours than were most other kinds of bats and couldbe approached and captured only with considerable difficulty. From thevarious colonies 13 females and 3 males were banded. Noctilio leporinus mexicanus Goldman. --Seen in Wheeler Estuary by Enders(_op. Cit. _:416) who uses the subspecific name _N. L. Leporinus_. Goodwin (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. , 79:121, May 29, 1942) later usedthe subspecific name _N. L. Mexicanus_ for this species in Panamá. Micronycteris megalotis microtis Miller. --Enders (_op. Cit. _:417)obtained specimens of this species from the underside of a fallen logand in a hollow tree at marker No. 23 on the Pearson Trail. Phyllostomus discolor discolor Wagner. --Taken from a hollow tree byEnders (_op. Cit. _:417). Glossophaga soricina leachii (Gray). --No. 45073, April 5. Carollia perspicillata azteca Saussure. --No. 400 of Jackson taken atAllee Creek and Barbara Lathrop Trail and No. 52456 (410 of Jackson) atTermite Cemetery. These two nonpregnant females weighed 14. 7 and 17. 7grams, respectively. Two ([Male] and [Female]), caught at TermiteCemetery were banded and released. Carollia castanea H. Allen. --Males, 45080 and 45081, weighed 11. 8 and11. 5 grams; at 9:30 P. M. , on April 6, on Barbara Lathrop Trail. Vampyrops helleri Peters. --Male, No. 45095, in net on April 4; weighed15 grams. Vampyressa minuta Miller. --Lactating female, No. 45094, weighed 10. 0grams. At 10:30 A. M. At the outer end of the Armour Trail, Young andHall had barely paused to listen to animal sounds when they saw this batalight on a breast-high twig of a bush beneath large trees in the gloomof the forest. Possibly it had been disturbed when the zoologists a fewseconds before had pushed aside bushes that partly obstructed the trail. Vampyressa nymphaea Thomas. --Nonpregnant female No. 52455 (403 ofJackson) weighed 10. 3 grams and was taken at the Termite Cemetery on May8. So far as we know, this specimen provides the first record ofoccurrence in North America of this species which previously had beenrecorded only from South America. Chiroderma isthmica Miller. --Male No. 45096, April 2; weighed 13. 7grams. Vampyrodes major G. M. Allen. --Male No. 45085, weighed 33 grams. It andthe one _Chiroderma isthmica_ on the morning of April 2 constituted thetotal catch found in the net stretched in the open clearing between twocabins. Artibeus lituratus palmarum J. A. Allen and Chapman. --Nonpregnant femaleNo. 45086 taken on evening of April 7, weighed 68. 0 grams. No. 401 ofJackson taken on May 6 weighed 53. 5 grams and contained one embryo 12mm. Long; his No. 409 taken on May 10 weighed 53. 7 grams and containedone embryo 15 mm. Long. Enders (_op. Cit. _:418) took specimens of _Artibeus jamaicensisjamaicensis_ in Panamá and possibly on Barro Colorado Island; he is notspecific as to locality. Artibeus cinereus watsoni Thomas. --Male No. 45087 on April 8; weight13. 6 grams. Ingles (Jour. Mamm. , 34:267, May, 1953) records the findingof as many as three of these bats on the Island in a "tent" that thebats had made of a frond of the palm, _Geonoma decurrens_. Thyroptera tricolor albigula G. M. Allen. --On May 10 along theSnyder-Molino Trail 50 meters from its beginning Dr. E. R. Dunn found ina curled _Heliaconia_ leaf a group of four bats of this species. Alactating female (No. 405 of Jackson), a young male (No. 406 ofJackson) attached to its mother's teat, and a male (No. 407 of Jackson, now 52457 K. U. ) weighed, respectively, 4. 8, 2. 2, and 4. 0 grams. Theyoung one remained attached to the mother when she flew about thelaboratory. The fourth specimen, a male, was banded and released. Thesebats with the aid of suction cups on their wrists and ankles hung headup in the rolled leaf and on places in the laboratory on which theyalighted. This species was previously recorded (see Enders, _op. Cit. _:421) from Barro Colorado Island, on the basis of other specimensalso captured by Professor Dunn. Myotis nigricans nigricans (Schinz). --Nos. 45089-45091 and No. 408 ofJackson. Nos. 45090 and 45091 were plucked from under the eaves ofbuildings, but No. 45089 was caught in the net on the evening of April5. Jackson found this species to roost between the corrugations of themetal roof and the underlying wooden supports. He banded 14 individuals, most of which were pulled with forceps from their resting places in theold laboratory or the kitchen. All were males. Five were recaptured fromone to 13 days after banding, and two were found in the places fromwhich they originally had been plucked 13 days previously. Enders (_op. Cit. _:421) found this species to be abundant about the laboratory whereit spent the day hanging under the eaves. Molossus coibensis J. A. Allen. --Males Nos. 45092 and 45093 weighed 13. 9and 10. 0 grams. They were taken in the clearing on April 3 and 5. Enders(_op. Cit. _:421) found this bat under the eaves of the laboratory alongwith _Myotis nigricans_. * * * * * On April 19, 1952, Dr. Harold Trapido kindly took Young, Dickenson, Hall, and Dr. And Mrs. E. R. Dunn to the Experimental Botanical Gardensat Summit in the Canal Zone where Nos. 45082-45084 of _Urodermabilobatum_ Peters were saved. On the same date Doctor Trapido took thefive of us also to Chilibrillo Cave in Panamá 10 miles north of PedroMiguel where specimens were saved as follows: _Saccopteryx bilineata_(Temminck), 45059 and 45060; _Phyllostomus hastatus panamensis_ J. A. Allen, 45063-45072; _Lonchophylla robusta_ Miller, 45074-45075;_Carollia perspicillata azteca_ Saussure, 45076-45079; _Natalusmexicanus saturabus_ Dalquest and Hall, 45088. _Transmitted July 20, 1953. _ 25-264