Vol. XIII, pp. 165-170 October 31, 1900 



PROCEEDINGS 



or THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Systematic Name of the Cuban Red Bat. 



In this journal Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, ,Ir., recently (xiii, p. 1.)."), June 13, 

 1900) raised the question of the proper sj'stematic name of the t'uban 

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

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

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

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

 of the genus Lasiui'us, 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 nouveauxou peu connu, decrits et figures dans I'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 Ve'^pirtiUo hlosi<i'illii, the description being a 

 transcript of the Latin diagnosis of Vespertilio bonariensis from Lesson 

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

 the plate carries the name Vexpertilio bonarienm as well as the text, the 

 name Vexpertilio bloxserillii is evidently a pure synonym of V. bonarienxix. 

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

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

 fut remis par Tun de nos offlciers, M. de l^losseville, qui le prit sur un 

 vaisseau mouille dans la riviere de la Plata." 



Gervais, in 184.5 (in R. de la Sagra's Hist, fis., polit. y nat. de la Isla de 

 Cuba, iii, 32) simply applied the name Vexpertilio bloxxecillii to the Cuban 

 Red Bat (subseciuently named Atalupha 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 Garnot's report on the zoology 

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

 Cuban Red Bat is, therefore, Lasiurux jtf'W'''^ (Giuidlach) as of late 

 currently employed. — J. A. Allen. 



36— Biol. Soc. Wash. Vol. XIII, 1900. (165) 



