PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Issued vM^iS^yv'^'l ^H ^ 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 110 Washington : 1959 No. 3417 



A REVISION OF AMERICAN BATS 

 OF THE GENERA EUDERMA AND PLECOTUS 



By Charles O. Handley, Jr. 



Introduction 



Confusion and damage to nomenclatural stability are consequences 

 of taxonomic revisions that do not provide adequate explanations or 

 justifications for proposed changes in nomenclature. They are ig- 

 nored, accepted with reservation, or blindly followed by those who 

 have occasion to use them. Confusion of this sort involves a wide- 

 spread American bat, now referred to in literature either as Cory- 

 norhinus or Plecotus. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the status 

 of this bat and its American and Eurasian relatives (particularly 

 Euderma), to assay the evolution of the group, to map geographic 

 distributions, and to bring together the Uterature on natural history of 

 the group. 



The genera Euderma and Plecotus are vespertilionid bats with ex- 

 ceptionally large ears. They are known colloquially as mule-eared 

 bats, jack-rabbit bats, or, simply, big-eared bats, or long-eared bats. 

 Some species are referred to as lump-nosed bats. Plecotus, as here 

 understood, includes the American Idionycteris and Corynorhinus as 

 subgenera. 



Perhaps the earliest published reference to an American big-eared 

 bat was that of Clayton (1694, p. 124) in his remarks on the "beasts 

 of Virginia": "Baits, as I remember at least two sorts; one a large 



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