Status of Bauerus Van Gelder and Its Relationships to Other Nyctophiline Bats

Abstract

Until more comparisons can be made between bats of the subfamily Nyctophilinae, it seems premature to raise Bauerus (a subgenus of Antrozous ) to generic rank. In particular, complete specimens of Antrozous koopmani are needed. Two specimens of Bauerus taken recently in Honduras extend the known geographic range of the subgenus, which previously was known from one locality on the Tres Marias Islands and another in Veracruz. Antrozous (Bauerus) dubiaquercus and the nominal species A . ( B .) meyeri are treated as merely subspecifically distinct, with the former known only from the tropical deciduous forest of the Tres Marias Islands and the latter characteristic of the tropical evergreen forest of the mainland. The penes of A. dubiaquercus and A. pallidus are unusual, trilobate structures, different from those found in other North American vespertilionid bats and the Australian genus, Nyctophilus . Antrozous seems most closely related to the Old World Otonycteris , and neither seems closely related to the nyctophilines ( Lamingtona, Nyctophilus , and Pharotis ) of the Australian Region.