OCCASIONAL PAPERS
of the
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
—The University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
NUMBER 2APRIL 29, 1971
NOTEWORTHY RECORDS OF BATS FROM
NICARAGUA, WITH A CHECKLIST OF
THE CHIROPTERAN FAUNA OF THE COUNTRY
By
J. Knox Jones, Jr.,1 James Dale Smith,2
Ronald W. Turner3
Nicaragua occupies a strategic position in Central America with respectto mammalian distributional patterns, but relatively little has beenpublished concerning the fauna of the country and its zoogeographicrelationships. The present paper records information on distribution,variation, and natural history of 40 species of bats from Nicaragua, 14of which are here recorded for the first time from the country.Appended is a checklist of the chiropteran fauna of Nicaragua in whichonly primary literature with actual reference to specimens from therepublic is cited.
The specimens upon which this report is based are, with few exceptions,in the collections of the Museum of Natural History of The Universityof Kansas. Some of our material was obtained in 1956 by J. R. and A. A.Alcorn, field representatives of the Museum and sponsored by the KansasUniversity Endowment Association; most of the specimens, however, wereobtained by field parties of which we were members that worked inNicaragua in 1964, 1966, 1967, and 1968 under the aegis of a contract(DA-49-193-MD-2215) between the U.S. Army Medical Research andDevelopment Command and The University of Kansas. Place-namesassociated with localities mentioned in the text from which specimensat Kansas were collected are plotted on Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.—Map of Nicaragua showinglocation of place-names associated with specimens reported in thispaper. Localities, identified by number, are as follows: I,Potosí; 2, Cosigüina; 3, Hda. Bellavista, Volcán Casita;4, Chinandega; 5, San Antonio; 6, Jalapa; 7, Condega; 8, Yalí; 9,Santa María de Ostuma; 10, San Ramón; 11, Matagalpa; 12,Darío; 13, Esquipulas; 14, Santa Rosa; 15, Boaco; 16, Teustepe;17, Tipitapa; 18, Sabana Grande; 19, Managua; 20, Cuapa; 21, VillaSomoza; 22, Hato Grande; 23, Diriamba; 24, Guanacaste; 25, Mecatepe;26, Nandaime; 27, Alta Gracia, Isla de Ometepe; 28, Mérida, Islade Ometepe; 29, Rivas; 30, San Juan del Sur; 31, Sapoá; 32,Bonanza; 33, El Recreo; 34, Cara de Mono.
In the accounts that follow, departments in Nicaragua are listedalphabetically, but localities within each department are arranged fromnorth to south; elevations are given in meters or feet, depending onwhich was used on specimen labels. All specimens are in the Museum ofNatural History of The University of Kansas unless noted otherwise. Weare indebted to Drs. Charles O. Handley, Jr., and Ronald Pine of theU.S. National Museum (USNM) for lending us certain critical specimens.
1 Curator, Division of Mammals, Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas.