184.

Harmless Serotine

Eptesicus innoxius

French: Sérotine de Gervais / German: Friedliche Breitfligelfledermaus / Spanish: Eptesicus de Gervais

Taxonomy. Vespertilio innoxius P. Gervais in Vaillant, 1841,

Amotape, Piura, Peru.

Eptesicus innoxius includes espadae and punicus as synonyms. Monotypic.

Distribution. Pacific coast from WC Ecuador (including Puna I) S to NW Peru.

Descriptive notes. Head—body 44-55 mm, tall 32-41 mm, ear 12-15 mm, hindfoot 7-9 mm, forearm 34-40 mm. Females are larger than males. Dorsal hairs of the Harmless Serotine are bicolored, with blackish bases and dark brown to grayish brown tips; ventral hairs have light brown bases and buffy to whitish tips. Ears and membranes are medium brown. Tragusis relatively broad, short, and slightly curved. Skull is small, zygomatic arches are narrow and weak, braincase is narrow, and sagittal and lambdoidal crests are poorly developed or absent.

Habitat. Dry and semideciduous tropical forests in primary and secondary dry forests, disturbed forests, grasslands, leafless shrub areas, mangroves, thorn forests, and banana, papaya, and mango plantations, frequently near water bodies, from sea level up to elevations of ¢. 900 m.

Food and Feeding. The Harmless Serotine is insectivorous and has been captured foraging over water in open areas. Fecal samples contained fragments of Homoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, and possibly small Lepidoptera .

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. Harmless Serotines are nocturnal. Individuals were observed flying throughout the night from 19:00 h to 05:00 h. Roosts occurred under loose bark 40 cm aboveground and inside hollow trees c.1-5 m aboveground; in both cases, surroundings were open areas of at least 4 m diameter. Roosts have also been found in buildings.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Adult males are usually solitary when roosting under loose bark and can roost with different species in hollow trees, including Myotis sp. and Pallas’s Mastiff Bat (Molossus molossus). Small groups of Harmless Serotines roost in buildings, varying from 4-6 sexually segregated individuals.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Near Threatened on The IUCN Red List. The Harmless Serotine is locally common in some localities and occurs in some protected areas. Nevertheless,its distribution is relatively small, and tropical dry forests are facing severe deforestation resulting in loss of forest cover.

Bibliography. Carrera et al. (2010), Davis, W.B. (1966), Davis, W.B. & Gardner (2008), Gervais (1841), Lee et al. (2010), Linares & Zabala (2018), Pacheco et al. (2007), Simmons (2005), Velazco & Aguirre (2016a).