Part 4

Vesperugo veracrucis Ward, Amer. Nat., 25:745, August, 1891.

Pipistrellus veracrucis Miller, N. Amer. Fauna, 13:93, October 16, 1897.

Type locality.--Las Vigas, 8,500 ft., Veracruz.

Range.--Eastern Mexico, certainly from the type locality southward into Honduras. Records of occurrence are: Veracruz: Las Vigas (13 specimens from 4 km. E Las Vigas, 8,500 ft., K. U.); 30 km. SSE Jesus Carranza, 1 (K. U.). Honduras: Jilamo Farm, Tela District, 3 (Univ. Michigan).

Diagnosis.--Size small for the species; measurements of 13 near topotypes are: total length, 78(73-85); tibia, 12.9(11.8-14.7); forearm, 31.8(29.5-33.1); greatest length of skull (exclusive of incisors), 12.2(11.8-12.6); breadth of braincase immediately above roots of zygomatic arches, 6.3(6.0-6.7). Color darker than Mummy Brown above and below.

Remarks.--The specimen from thirty kilometers south-southeast of Jesus Carranza, Veracruz, and the three specimens from Honduras agree in all respects with topotypes. The color of P. s. veracrucis is much darker than that of P. s. obscurus and is between black and the darkest brown in Ridgway's (op. cit.) color key. Rinker (Jour. Mamm., 29:179-180,1948) described the three specimens from Honduras without assigning a specific name to them because he lacked topotypes of P. s. veracrucis. We find nothing in his description to correct, but can add that the upper tooth-rows in many, but not in all, specimens of P. s. veracrucis are straighter than in P. s. subflavus. Probably it was this feature to which Rinker referred when he said that in veracrucis "The tooth rows tend to be more convergent posteriorly." Rinker did not refer the three specimens from Honduras to P. veracrucis because Ward's original description states that veracrucis has evenly spaced lower incisors and a basal cusp on the lower canine on only its forward edge. Rinker's specimens from Honduras have the first incisors in contact with each other, the second incisors in contact with the first incisors and the third incisor on each side of the lower jaw separated by a space from the second incisor and from the canine. The specimens from Honduras have a basal cusp on the hinder edge of the lower canine. In these two features they agree with the specimens from Veracruz and with specimens of Pipistrellus subflavus from the United States and Canada. It is clear that Ward (Amer. Nat., 25:747,1891) was mistaken in stating that the lower incisors of veracrucis were evenly spaced and that the canine had a basal cusp on only the forward edge. Ward (loc. cit.) was correct in regarding his Vesperugo veracrucis as "most closely related to V. georgianus [= Pipistrellus subflavus]," but for want of actual specimens of P. subflavus to use in comparison was incorrect in supposing that P. subflavus had only two bands of color on the fur, more hair on the legs, and a larger area of hair on the interfemoral membrane. In these respects we perceive no difference between specimens from Veracruz and the United States.

Vesperugo veracrucis Ward, therefore, proves to be only a subspecies of Pipistrellus subflavus, but is well characterized by dark color and small size.

University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Lawrence, Kansas.

Transmitted October 31, 1949.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes

The text presented in this file is that contained in the original printed version. Only one typographical error was noted in the conversion of the printed document to digital format.

Typographical Error

Page 598: P.h. veracrucis => P. s. veracrucis

Emphasis Notation

In order to represent the emphasis styling displayed in the original, the following formatting has been employed:

Text = Italic

+Text+ = Bold

* * * * *