179.

Guadeloupe Serotine

Eptesicus guadeloupensis

French: Sérotine de Guadeloupe / German: Guadeloupe-Breitfligelfledermaus / Spanish: Eptesicus de Guadalupe

Other common names: Guadeloupe Big Brown Bat, Guadeloupean Big Brown Bat

Taxonomy. Eptesicus guadeloupensis Genoways & R. J. Baker, 1975,

“from 2 km. S, 2 km. E Baie-Mahault, Basse Terre, Guadeloupe,” Lesser Antilles.

Eptesicus guadeloupensis seems to be closely related to E. fuscus, but it is visibly larger.

Monotypic.

Distribution. Basse-Terre I, Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles).

Descriptive notes. Head-body ¢.73-75 mm, tail 54-60 mm, ear 22-5-24 mm, hindfoot 11-14 mm, forearm 49-6-51-1 mm. Females are larger than males. The Guadeloupe Serotine is the largest species of New World Eptesicus . Dorsal hairs are bicolored, with black bases and dark chocolate-brown tips; ventral hairs have black bases and dark buff to whitish tips. Ears are noticeably large. Membranes are black. Tibia is long. Skull is large and similar to the Big Brown Bat ( FE. fuscus) but proportionally longer and narrowerthan in latter. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 50 and FN = 48, with acrocentric autosomes and Y-chromosome and submetacentric X-chromosome.

Habitat. Humid forests and gallery forests from sea level up to elevations of ¢. 300 m. The Guadeloupe Serotine has been captured in open fields near forest edges.

Food and Feeding. The Guadeloupe Serotine is insectivorous. It forages along forest edges and above forests. Coleopterans are known to occur in diets.

Breeding. One post-lactating Guadeloupe Serotine was captured in late July.

Activity patterns. The Guadeloupe Serotine seems to roost in hollow trees in gallery forests. Abundance of populations possibly increases and decreases in annual cycles, which might be related to prey cycles. Echolocation calls have FM components that sweep down from 45-50 kHz to ¢.25 kHz. Pulseslast ¢.10 milliseconds, and frequencies of maximum energy are 25-30 kHz.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Endangered on The IUCN Red List. The Guadeloupe Serotine is known from less than five locations and has an extent of occurrence smaller than 850 km ®. Populations seem to be small, and recent broad acoustic surveys obtained very few records of it. Major threats include habitat decline due to human actvities, tropical hurricanes, and introduction of exotic species such as rats, mice, and mongooses. Conservation actions include research on abundance cycles, echolocation monitoring, and protection of potential habitats (humid and gallery forests).

Bibliography. Baker, Genoways & Patton (1978), Barataud (2016), Barataud & Giosa (2013b), Barataud et al. (2015), Genoways & Baker (1975), Simmons (2005).