Tadarida brasiliensis antillularum ( Miller 1902 )

P, S C., L, P A., G, H H., M, M N., L, K C. & C, J, 2007, B B, N L A, Occasional Papers of the Museum 271, pp. 1-20 : 13-14

Tadarida brasiliensis antillularum ( Miller 1902)

Specimens examined (22).— Codrington , 3 blocks north of airport, 3 ( NMNH) : Gun Shop Cave , 17°40'03"N, 61°46'00"W, 11 m, 8 ( TTU) ; Two Feet Bay , 17°40'08.0"N, 61°46'8.4"W, 15 m, 1 ( TTU) ; no specific locality, 10 (NMNH) .

Specimen captured/released (1).—Gun Shop Cave, 17°40'03"N, 61°46'00"W, 11 m, 1.

Shamel (1931) was the first to report the Brazilian free-tailed bat from Barbuda, basing his report on 11 individuals collected from an unspecified location by H. S. Branch between 16 to 29 August 1903. Miller (1902) described this taxon as a species with a type locality at Roseau, Dominica, but Schwartz (1955) reduced this taxon to a subspecies of the widespread Tadarida brasiliensis . This subspecies has a geographic range extending from Puerto Rico to St. Vincent ( Genoways et al. 2001). Table 1 presents the length of forearm and cranial measurements of a sample of seven adult males and two adult females from Barbuda. All of the measurements of one of the females (TTU 101779) fall within the range of variation displayed by the males, whereas two measurements (length of forearm and greatest length of skull) of the second female (TTU 101781) fall below the range of the males, and two other measurements (condylobasal length and postorbital constriction) fall at the lower limit of the range of variation of the males.

This bat has a very broad Neotropical distribution, although it may only occur at moderate densities throughout the Lesser Antilles ( Blankenship 1990). No individuals of this species were taken during our work in 1994 on Barbuda, but we did collect eight males and two females in 2003. No individuals of T. brasiliensis were captured in mist nets set in foraging areas on Barbuda. Nine of the 10 individuals were netted in Gun Shop Cave as they returned from their first foraging bout of the evening or as they moved from other small caves in this area on the northeast coast. The male from Two Feet Bay was extracted from a narrow crevice in a rocky cliff face on the northeast coast. We observed several other individuals in nearby fissures, but the bats were located so far back in each crevice that they could not be reached. We do not know under what circumstances the seven male and three female specimens were taken in 1903 or how two males and one female were obtained in Codrington on 19 January 1983.

None of the seven females for which we have reproductive data evinced any gross reproductive activity on the following dates: 19 January 1983, 1; 4 June 2003, 2; 16 August 1903, 2; 20 August 1903, 1; 29 August 1903, 1. The testes lengths of males taken on 7 June averaged 3.3 (2-4). One male and two females collected between 20 and 25 August exhibited open phalangeal epiphyses, although their forearm lengths were essentially of adult size, 38.2, 36.9, and 36.5, respectively. Seven males weighed an average of 9.3 (8.3-10.6) and two females weighed 9.0 and 9.3.