Brachyphylla cavernarum cavernarum Gray 1834
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15748434 |
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15757237 |
persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03E5CB5A-336A-FFFA-BF42-6528FDB6F5F0 |
treatment provided by |
Felipe |
scientific name |
Brachyphylla cavernarum cavernarum Gray 1834 |
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Brachyphylla cavernarum cavernarum Gray 1834 View in CoL
Specimens examined (41).— Dominic , 4.3 km E Codrington, 17°38'26.6"N, 61°47'05.8"W, 14 m, 16 ( TTU) GoogleMaps ; Two Feet Bay , Gun Shop Cliff, 17°40'03"N, 61°46'00"W, 11 m, 4 ( NMNH) GoogleMaps ; no specific locality, 21 (NMNH).
Specimens captured/released (33).— Dominic, 4.3 km E Codrington, 17°38'26.6"N, 61°47'05.8"W, 14 m, 21; GoogleMaps Indian Cave , 17°40'04"N, 61°46'10"W, 8; New Cave, 4 GoogleMaps .
Additional record.— Back on Praying Land Cave , 17°38'23"N, 61°46'01"W (2007 photograph - Cindric) GoogleMaps .
The Antillean fruit-eating bat has been reported from Barbuda by previous authors, but it has never been associated with a specific locality (Miller 1913; Anthony 1918; Swanepoel and Genoways 1978; Hall 1981). Table 1 View Table 1 presents the length of forearm and seven cranial measurements for a sample of five males and five females from Barbuda. The only measurement in which there was a significant difference between the sexes was breadth across the upper molars, with males being larger (P ≤ 0.05). In general, males were larger in all other cranial measurements except postorbital constriction in which the females averaged broader. Females also had longer forearms. The measurements of our sample from Barbuda match closely those samples of the subspecies B. c. cavernarum presented by Swanepoel and Genoways (1978); therefore, we assign the material from Barbuda to the nominate subspecies, which has a type locality of St. Vincent.
As on many islands in the northern Lesser Antilles, B. cavernarum is an obligate cave dweller and occupies large cave systems. Entire colonies may move among several caves on an island on a seasonal basis or may split into separate male and female colonies when pups and juveniles are present ( Pedersen et al. 1996, 2003). In February 1994, 22 B. cavernarum were collected by hand and with mist-nets in Indian, Dark, and New caves, but only females were taken in Dark Cave. Of the 22 individuals, 10 were males and 12 were females, including three juvenile males and one juvenile female. Average weight and forearm length of three of the adult males was 43.8 (40.3-47.2) and 65.2 (64.2-67.1), whereas the weight and forearm length of nine adult females was 44.9 (36.3-54.8) and 66.3 (64.7-71.3). In June 2003, individuals of B. cavernarum were clearly observed in large numbers up in the high domed ceilings of Dark Cave. The floor of the cave was littered with several B. cavernarum skulls and disarticulated skeletons.
On the night of 4 June 2003, 37 B. cavernarum were mist netted while they foraged among mixed fruit trees (primarily mango) in a semi-abandoned fruit orchard at Dominic. The mangos, which were nearly ripe, were quite small in size. The grove of fruit trees was surrounded by low acacia and other thorny native plants. In Back on Praying Land Cave, a group of 300 to 400 Antillean fruit-eating bats was observed and photographed in 2007. This large sinkhole had at least four ceiling openings and the bats were located in one dark recess of the cave. The colony was disturbed by the human presence, but the bats did not leave the cave.
Of the 20 females captured at Dominic, six were lactating, eight were pregnant, and six were non-reproductive. None of the 17 males appeared to be reproductively active, and testis lengths for six adult males were 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, and 7. Four of the females gave birth in the holding bags—three of the young were alive and the fourth was dead the following morning. One of the newborn that remained associated with its mother was a female that weighed 11.9 and had a forearm of 35.0, whereas its mother weighed 41.6 and had a forearm of 65.6. The remaining two living newborns (female followed by male) and the dead newborn male had the following measurements, respectively: weight, 10.6, 10.7, 8.1; length of forearm, 34.7, 31.3, and 26.4. Average weight for the 17 males was 47.6 (41.2-48.5). Average weight for five post-partum lactating females was 42.5 (40.6-44.1). One of the eight pregnant females weighed 62.1 and the other seven were so near-term that they were released without collecting body mass data from them. The average weight of three non-reproductive females was 42.8 (39.7-45.6). Many of these animals had minor wounds to the plagiopatagium covering the metacarpals on one wing or the other. Upon removal from the mist net, one male with a forearm of 67.0 exhibited a very deep puncture wound to the chest wall that penetrated the rib cage. The diameter and depth of this wound ruled out the possibility of this being the result of fighting with conspecifics.
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
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