Biodiversity Data Journal :
General research article
|
Corresponding author:
Academic editor: Alexandra M. R. Bezerra
Received: 21 Jul 2015 | Accepted: 17 Aug 2015 | Published: 18 Aug 2015
© 2015 Ricardo Moratelli, Liu Idárraga, Don Wilson
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Moratelli R, Idárraga L, Wilson D (2015) Range extension of Myotis midastactus (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) to Paraguay. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e5708. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e5708
|
|
Myotis midastactus Moratelli and Wilson, 2014 (Vespertilionidae, Myotinae) was described from the Myotis simus Thomas, 1901 complex based on collections from the Bolivian Savannah.
Four vouchers previously assigned to M. simus from the Alto Chaco in Paraguay (West of the Paraguay River) are reassigned here to M. midastactus. These specimens extend the geographic distribution of M. midastactus 1200 km southward, and constitute the first evidence of the species in the country. Based on other material from the Brazilian Pantanal and Cerrado, Central Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina, we also discuss the identity of simus-like populations south of the Amazon Basin. The status of these populations is still unclear, but the little evidence we have at hand indicates that these populations may represent another taxon—M. guaycuru Proença, 1943; whereas M. simus seems to be restricted to the Amazon basin. This hypothesis is still very speculative and requires further investigation. With the assignment of material from Alto Chaco to M. midastactus, seven species of Myotis are confirmed for Paraguay: M. albescens, M. lavali, M. levis, M. midastactus, M. nigricans, M. riparius, and M. ruber.
Myotis guaycuru, Myotis midastactus, Myotis simus, South America, taxonomy
Myotis simus was described by
Based on morphological and morphometric evidence (
In this report we extend the geographic distribution of M. midastactus from the Bolivian savannah to west of the Paraguay River, Paraguay. We also discuss the status of populations of M. simus out of the Amazon Basin (herein referred as simus-like).
Four pregnant females deposited as vouchers at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), Berkeley, USA, constitute the first records of M. midastactus from Paraguay (MVZ 144481–144484). These vouchers were collected by P. Myers on 22 October 1972, 230 km NW from Villa Hayes (by road), Presidente Hayes, Paraguay (23°23′ S, 58°46′ W). Geographical coordinates for these specimens were obtained from Gardner's gazetteer of marginal localities (
Qualitative and quantitative traits from the external and skull morphology were used to compare specimens representing M. midastactus from Paraguay with others representing M. midastactus (N = 33; type series) from Bolivia; M. simus (N = 79) from the Amazon Basin (northern Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru); and simus-like (N = 8) from mid-western Brazil and northern Argentina (Figure 1). Sub-adults and adults were used in the qualitative analyses, but quantitative data was retrieved from adults only. These specimens and the geographical coordinates of their localities are listed in the supplementary material. We also compared M. midastactus from Paraguay with representatives of other species confirmed for the country except M. levis, which include: M. albescens (N = 161), M. lavali (N = 4), M. nigricans (N = 103), M. riparius (N = 10), and M. ruber (N = 5). Myotis levis is represented in Paraguay by a single record (
Measurements in this report are either in millimetres (mm) or grams ([g] body mass) and are from adults. The total length (TL), tail, hind foot (HF), ear, and the body mass (BM) were recorded from skin labels. Other dimensions include: the forearm length (FA), third metacarpal length (3ML), length of the dorsal hair (LDH), length of the ventral hair (LVH), greatest length of skull, including incisors (GLS), condylocanine length (CCL), condylobasal length (CBL), condylo-incisive length (CIL), basal length (BAL), zygomatic breadth (ZB), mastoid breadth (MAB), braincase breadth (BCB), interorbital breadth (IOB), postorbital breadth (POB), breadth across canines (BAC), breadth across molars (BAM), maxillary toothrow length (MTL), molariform toothrow length (M1–3), mandibular length (MAL), and mandibular toothrow length (MAN). These measurements are defined in
The four Paraguayan vouchers (MVZ 144481–144484) from Presidente Hayes (Fig.
Selected measurements (mm) and body mass (g) of Myotis midastactus from Bolivia (type series) and Paraguay (MVZ 144481–144484), M. simus from the Amazon Basin (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), M. simus-like from Argentina, and the holotype of M. guaycuru (ALP 9277; female) from mid-western Brazil. Samples include adults only, with males and females combined. See Material and methods for variable abbreviations.
M. midastactus |
M. simus |
M. simus-like |
M. guaycuru |
||
Bolivia |
Paraguay |
Amazon Basin |
Argentina |
Brazil |
|
Mean |
Mean |
Mean |
Mean |
Holotype |
|
(Min–Max) N |
(Min-Max) N |
(Min-Max) N |
(Min-Max) N |
ALP 9277 |
|
TL |
90 |
97 |
85 |
86 |
75 |
(86–93) 10 |
(96–100) 4 |
(83–87) 2 |
(83–93) 4 |
– |
|
Tail |
39 |
39 |
33 |
36 |
33 |
(36–40) 10 |
(37–41) 4 |
(33–33) 2 |
(30–40) 4 |
– |
|
HF |
9 |
10 |
8 |
9 |
7* |
(8–10) 10 |
(9–11) 4 |
(7–9) 3 |
(8–9) 4 |
– |
|
Ear |
13 |
14 |
12 |
13 |
12 |
(12–13) 10 |
(13–15) 3 |
(11–13) 3 |
(12–13) 4 |
– |
|
BM |
10 |
9 |
7 |
9 |
– |
(6–11) 15 |
(8–10) 4 |
(5–8) 2 |
– |
– |
|
FA |
39.3 |
38.5 |
37.8 |
39.0 |
38.1 |
(38.2–40.7) 17 |
(38.2–39.1) 4 |
(35.5–39.7) 29 |
(38.8–39.1) 4 |
– |
|
3ML |
36.1 |
35.2 |
34.7 |
35.8 |
35.6 |
(34.5–37.9) 17 |
(34.8–35.6) 4 |
(32.7–36.9) 35 |
(34.9–35.3) 4 |
– |
|
LDH |
5.0 |
5.0 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
– |
(3.0–6.0) 17 |
(4.0–5.0) 4 |
(3.1–5.3) 29 |
(4.0–4.0) 3 |
– |
|
LVH |
4.0 |
4.0 |
3.4 |
3.0 |
– |
(3.0–5.0) 17 |
(3.0–5.0) 4 |
(2.8–4.2) 29 |
(2.0–4.0) 3 |
– |
|
GLS |
14.6 |
14.3 |
14.1 |
13.8 |
13.7 |
(13.9–15.1) 26 |
(14.0–14.5) 4 |
(13.6–14.8) 43 |
– |
– |
|
CCL |
13 |
12.8 |
12.4 |
11.4 |
12.2 |
(12.4–13.4) 25 |
(12.5–13.0) 4 |
(11.9–13.0) 40 |
– |
– |
|
CBL |
13.6 |
13.5 |
13.0 |
13.4 |
12.9 |
(13.2–14.0) 25 |
(13.3–13.7) 4 |
(12.5–13.5) 40 |
– |
– |
|
CIL |
13.9 |
13.7 |
13.3 |
13.5 |
13 |
(13.3–14.2) 25 |
(13.4–13.9) 4 |
(12.7–13.9) 41 |
– |
– |
|
BAL |
12.4 |
12.2 |
11.8 |
11.3 |
11.6 |
(11.8–12.7) 25 |
(12.0–12.6) 4 |
(11.2–12.4) 40 |
– |
– |
|
ZB |
9.9 |
– |
9.1 |
8.9 |
8.8 |
(9.6–10.2) 15 |
– |
(8.2–9.5) 11 |
– |
– |
|
MAB |
8.2 |
8.0 |
7.5 |
7.8 |
7.4 |
(8.0–8.5) 26 |
(7.8–8.1) 4 |
(6.9–8.1) 33 |
– |
– |
|
BCB |
7.4 |
7.1 |
6.9 |
7.0 |
7.0 |
(7.1–7.7) 26 |
(7.0–7.2) 4 |
(6.6–7.3) 39 |
– |
– |
|
IOB |
5.0 |
4.8 |
4.8 |
4.7 |
4.9 |
(4.8–5.3) 26 |
(4.8–5.0) 4 |
(4.5–5.0) 44 |
– |
– |
|
POB |
4.0 |
4.0 |
3.8 |
3.8 |
3.9 |
(3.8–4.3) 26 |
(4.0–4.0) 4 |
(3.6–4.0) 44 |
– |
– |
|
BAC |
4.2 |
4.0 |
4.1 |
3.7 |
3.9 |
(4.0–4.5) 26 |
(3.9–4.1) 4 |
(3.7–4.5) 42 |
– |
– |
|
BAM |
6.1 |
5.8 |
5.7 |
5.5 |
5.5 |
(4.1–6.4) 26 |
(5.7–6.0) 4 |
(5.3–6.0) 44 |
– |
– |
|
MTL |
5.4 |
5.3 |
5.1 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
(4.2–5.6) 26 |
(5.3–5.4) 4 |
(4.9–5.3) 43 |
– |
– |
|
M1–3 |
3.2 |
3.1 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
(4.3–3.3) 26 |
(3.0–3.2) 4 |
(2.7–3.2) 44 |
– |
– |
|
MAL |
10.7 |
10.5 |
10.1 |
10.2 |
10.0 |
(4.4–11.0) 23 |
(10.3–10.7) 4 |
(9.5–10.5) 15 |
– |
||
MAN |
5.8 |
5.5 |
5.4 |
5.4 |
– |
(4.5–6.0) 24 |
(5.5–5.7) 4 |
(5.2–5.8) 43 |
– |
– |
|
* Measured without claw |
Map of part of South America illustrating localities for Myotis midastactus (stars), M. simus (circles), M. simus-like and other undetermined specimens (both represented by triangles). Type localities of M. midastactus (loc 1), M. guaycuru (loc 5), and M. simus (loc 16) are represented by symbols with white marks in the centre. See Supplementary material for localities and their geographical coordinates.
Like most other M. midastactus, the Paraguayan vouchers (MVZ 144481–144484) average larger than M. simus (Table
Four specimens from three different localities in Argentina were tentatively assigned to M. simus-like. Two are from Formosa (CML 4680, MACN 20901 [Fig.
These specimens match M. simus from the Amazon Basin in fur texture and length, and zygomatic breadth (Table
A few specimens in the simus-group from Paraguay are pending identification. They are from localities east of the Paraguay River (Fig.
The Paraguayan vouchers we identified here as M. midastactus (MVZ 144481–144484) were previously identified as M. simus by
Myotis midastactus was described from a Bolivian habitat that harbours a few endemic birds and small mammals (
All Argentinian specimens of this taxon have been collected in flooded areas and wetland biomes of the Humid Chaco ecoregion (following
We envision two more realistic scenarios for this puzzle. Assuming that those specimens from mid-western Brazil (Pantanal and Cerrado) are conspecific with M. simus from the Amazon Basin, and those from Central Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina are M. simus as well; Amazon basin populations of M. simus can be connected with southernmost populations throughout the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado [Fig.
We thank the following curators and collection staff for loans, information on specimens in their care, for making collections available, or for assistance during museum work: C. Conroy (Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, USA), A. Peracchi (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Seropédica, Brazil), M. de Vivo, J. Barros (Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil), N. Simmons, E. Westwig (American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA), R. Baker, H. Garner (Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA), K. Helgen, D. Lunde, L. Gordon (Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA), R. Barquez (Fundación Miguel Lillo, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina), S. Solari (Instituto de Biología, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia), and H. López (Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Bogotá, Colombia). This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development / Science Without Borders Program (CNPq 202612/2012), Brazil; the Smithsonian Institution, USA; and the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.
Vouchers of Myotis midastactus, M. simus, and M. simus-like and the geographical coordinates of their localities are listed in the supplementary material. They are housed in the following institutions: American Museum of Natural History ([AMNH], New York, USA); National Museum of Natural History ([USNM], Washington DC, USA); Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo ([MZUSP], São Paulo, Brazil); Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro ([ALP], Seropédica, Brazil); Colección de Mamíferos de la Fundación Miguel Lillo ([CML], San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina); Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” ([MACN], Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina); Colección Teriológica del Instituto de Biología de la Universidad de Antioquia ([CTUA], Medellín, Colombia); and Colección de Mamíferos del Instituto de Ciencias Naturales ([ICN], Bogotá DC, Colombia).