Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 112 1960 Number 3442 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW BATS FROM PANAMA 



By Charles O. Handley, Jr. 



In its studies of tropical diseases, the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory 

 of Panama is conducting a mammal surve3 r of the Republic. The 

 work in 1959 centered on the headwaters of the Rio Pucro, near Cerro 

 Tacarcuna, Province of Darien, eastern Panama. 



Among the mammals collected on the Rio Pucro were 43 species of 

 bats, all caught in mist nets. Many of these species had not been 

 taken previously in Central America. Three species and one sub- 

 species herein described are new. Either there is a surprising amount 

 of endemism in this region, which is continuous with the Choco of 

 Colombia, or else there are a surprising number of undescribed wide- 

 spread species of bats in the Neotropical fauna. 



The Malaria Control and Survey Branch of the Office of the Chief 

 Surgeon, U.S. Army Caribbean, has also been collecting bats in Pan- 

 ama. Included in its collections are several species not previously 

 taken in the Republic and one of the new subspecies here described. 



I am indebted to the personnel of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, 

 particularly Carl Johnson, Pedro Galindo, and Rudolpho Hinds for 

 their support and cooperation. Likewise, I thank Robert Altman, 

 Marvin Keenan, and Vernon Tipton of the Malaria Control and 

 Survey Branch for their assistance and for the opportunity to study 

 their collections. I am also grateful to the authorities of the American 



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