Brachyphylla cavernarum cavernarum, Gray, 1834

G, H H., P, S C., P, C J. & G, L K., 2007, B A, N L A, Occasional Papers of the Museum 270, pp. 1-12 : 5-6

Brachyphylla cavernarum cavernarum Gray 1834

Specimens examined (60).—Fountain Cave, Island Harbour, 7 (AMNH); “Apple Hole” Cavern, 1 km NE North Side Village, 3 (NMNH); “The Fountain” Cavern, 0.5 km SW Shoal Village, 46 (8 NMNH, 38 UNSM); The Valley, 4 (AMNH).

Additional record.—Cavannagh Cave ( McFarlane and MacPhee 1989).

This Antillean endemic fruit-eating bat has been reported previously from Anguilla without specific localities by Koopman (1968) and the specimens in the American Museum of Natural History were included in the revision of the genus by Swanepoel and Genoways (1978). Swanepoel and Genoways (1978) assigned material from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and Anguilla southward through the Lesser Antilles to St. Vincent to the nominate subspecies, which has a type locality of St. Vincent. Forearm and cranial measurements of seven males and four females fall well within the range of samples presented by Swanepoel and Genoways (1978) for this subspecies ( Table 1 ). No statistically significant secondary sexual variation was found in our sample, which agrees with the results of Swanepoel and Genoways (1978). Males averaged larger than females in six measurements, whereas females averaged larger in postorbital constriction and the sexes averaged the same in breadth across upper molars.

The majority of our specimens came from two of the well-known caves on Anguilla —The Fountain and “Apple Hole” Cavern, which is known locally as Pitch Apple Hole. Both caves are dome-type caverns with small entrances located near the top of the dome. At the Fountain the drop to the floor is 10 m and at Pitch Apple the drop is 15 m. The Fountain is composed of two chambers of a total length of 50 m and a width of 30 m. There are two pools of freshwater in the cavern ( Hummelinck 1979; Watters 1991). A pitch apple tree ( Clusia rosea ) is located at the entrance of each of these caverns. The roots of these trees, which reach to the floor of the cavern, provided access to the caves’ interiors during early explorations. Brachyphylla were netted at the entrance of these two caverns. At Pitch Apple Hole, individuals of M. plethodon and A. jamaicensis were taken along with the B. cavernarum , whereas at The Fountain, a single N. stramineus was netted along with the B. cavernarum (see also Genoways 1989; McFarlane and MacPhee 1989).

On the evening following netting at the entrance of The Fountain, we took the permanently installed 10- m steel ladder to the floor of the cavern and searched for bats. We saw a few individuals of Brachyphylla moving about the large rooms of the cavern, but the majority of the colony was inaccessible because of the pools of water and the crevices they occupied were too narrow for us to explore. The pools of water helped keep the level of humidity high in the cavern, but much of the floor was covered with loose, dry soil, which was easily disturbed.

Nine males collected on May 19 had testes that averaged 7.9 (5-10) long and three males collected on October 6-7 had testes that were 8, 8, and 9 long. Single females taken on April 1, April 7, October 6, and October 8 evinced no gross reproductive activity. Among 28 females collected on May 19 at The Fountain, 21 were lactating, 5 evinced no gross evidence of being pregnant or lactating, one carried a fetus that measured 40.5 in crown-rump length, and one gave birth in captivity to a male neonate with a forearm length of 36.3. Six males captured on October 6-7 had an average weight of 53.3 (46-59.5), whereas five females taken on these dates weighed an average of 48.8 (42-52.5).