Atlantic Forest Long-nosed Bat | Dryadonycteris capixaba
Nogueira, Lima, Peracchi & Simmons 2012
The lowland Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil is well known for its biological diversity and numerous endemic taxa. Among bats collected recently at the Reserva Natural Vale and previously in the Floresta Nacional de Goytacazes, in the state of Espírito Santo, are specimens easily recognized as nectar-feeding glossophagines, but that exhibit a suite of morphological traits that preclude assignment to any of the 10 genera currently recognized in the subfamily Glossophaginae. Here we describe a new genus and species based on this material. This new taxon, named Dryadonycteris capixaba, is diagnosed based on both external and craniodental features, including traits not seen in other nectar-feeding phyllostomids, such as similar-sized calcar and foot and inflated maxillary bones. The combination of character states seen in Dryadonycteris suggests that it belongs in the Tribe Choeronycterini, subtribe Choeronycterina, but the mosaic nature of primitive and derived states seen in this taxon precludes easy assessment of its relationships to other choeronycterine genera. Future explicit phylogenetic analyses of morphological data and DNA sequencing studies will be necessary to resolve its phylogenetic position within Choeronycterini.
Keywords: Atlantic Forest, endemic, Glossophaginae, morphology, Espírito Santo.
Type Locality: Brazil, state of Espírito Santo, municipality of Linhares, Reserva Natural Vale, approximately 60 m elevation.
Etymology: In the first phytogeographic system proposed for Brazilian vegetation, the 19th-century German naturalist Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius ascribed names of nymphs from Greek mythology to each of the major provinces he described (Martius, 1824). To the province we now recognize as Atlantic Forest, he gave the name “Dryades” (from the Greek Dryas, a wood nymph) for the immortal nymphs of the forest. The generic epithet proposed here means, therefore, “bat from Dryades,” hence “bat from the Atlantic Forest,” in reference to the endemic character of this taxon. The species name capixaba, a noun in apposition, is from the Tupi language and designates natives from the state of Espírito Santo.
Marcelo R. Nogueira, Isaac P. Lima, Adriano L. Peracchi, and Nancy B. Simmons. 2012. New genus and species of nectar-feeding bat from the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae, Glossophaginae). American Museum novitates. 3747
Nova espécie de morcego é descoberta em Linhares, no ES. | New bat species is discovered in Linhares, ES.
