VOL. XIII, PP, 165-170 OCTOBER 31, 1900 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Systematic Name of the Cuban Red Bat. 



In this journal Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., recently (xiii, p. 155, June 13, 

 1900) raised the question of the proper systematic name of the Cuban 

 Red Bat, Lasiurus pfeifferi (Gundlach, 1861, et auct. recent.), claiming 

 that it should be L. blossevillii Gervais, or Lesson and Garnot. The his 

 tory of the name blossevillii is as follows: In 1826, Lesson and Garnot 

 (Voy. de la Ooquille, I, 1826, 137, pi. ii, fig. 1) described and figured a bat 

 of the genus Lasiurus, from the Rio de la Plata, as Vespertilio bonarien- 

 sis. In an unsigned abstract of this work in Ferussac's Bulletin des 

 Sciences naturelles et de Geologie, Vol. xiii, 1826, pp. 95, 96, under the 

 title "Mammiferes nouveaux ou peu connu, decrits et figure's dans 1' Atlas 

 zoologique du Voyage autour du monde de la corvette la Coquille; par 

 MM. Lesson et Garnot," descriptions are given of seven species of mam 

 mals, of which the first is Vespertilio blossvillii, the description being a 

 transcript of the Latin diagnosis of Vespertilio bonariensis from Lesson 

 and Garnet's "Voyage," with the addition "Hab. Monte-Video." As 

 the plate carries the name Vespertilio bonariensis as well as the text, the 

 name Vespertilio blosserillii is evidently a pure synonym of V. bonariensis. 

 The suggestion of the name blossevillii is evidently to be found in Lesson 

 and Garnet's text; these authors say that this bat "de Buenos Ayres nous 

 fut remis par 1'un de nos officiers, M. de Blosseville, qui le prit sur un 

 vaisseau mouille clans la riviere de la Plata." 



Gervais, in 1845 (in R. de la Sagra's Hist, fis., polit. y nat. de la Isla de 

 Cuba, iii, 32) simply applied the name Vespertilio blossevillii to the Cuban 

 Red Bat (subsequently named Atalapha pfeifferi by Gundlach, in 1861), 

 believing it to be specifically the same as that described by Lesson and 

 Garnot, as above explained, rightly citing for the name Ferussac's Bul 

 letin, but wrongly citing for it Lesson and Garnet's report on the zoology 

 of the Voyage of the Coquille. The proper systematic name of the 

 Cuban Red Bat is, therefore, Lasiurus pfeifferi (Gundlach) as of late 

 currently employed. J. A. Allen. 



36 BIOL. Soc. WASH. VOL. XIII, 1900. (165) 



