130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM tol. ho 



Plecotus phyllotis G. M. Allen 



Plecotus auritus J. A. Allen, 1881, p. 184. 

 Corynorhinus phyllotis G. M. Allen, 1916, p. 352. 

 Idionycteris mexicanus Anthony, 1923,2 p. 1. 

 Plecotus phyllotis Dalquest, 1953, p. 63. 

 Idionycteris phyllotis Handley, 1956, p. 53. 



Holotype: MCZ 5943; adult female, sldn and skull; collected 

 24 March 1878 by Edward Palmer; San Luis Potosi, [probably near 

 the city of San Luis Potosi or near Rio Verde (J. A. Allen, 1881, 

 p. 193)], Mexico. 



Distribution: Kno-wn only from San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, 

 and Arizona (fig. 12). Further collecting may show this species to 

 have a geographic range similar to that of Plecotus {Corynorhinus) 

 mexicanus (fig. 15). 



Description: As in subgeneric description. Adult coloration; 

 Mass effect of upperparts between Warm Buff and Cinnamon-Buff; 

 hair bases Bone Brown, sharply distinguished from hair tips; a 

 conspicuous cottony tuft of whitish hairs surrounds the posterior 

 base of each auricle. Tips of hair of imderparts between Pale 

 Ochraceous-Buff and Light Buff, sharply distinguished from the 

 Bone Brown to Fuscous-Black hair bases. Face covered with short 

 hairs; anterior external border of auricle with many long, curly 

 hairs; hairs long, lax, and dense on remainder of body. Size large 

 for genus; tragus appearing shorter than in other species of Plecotus 

 and almost as broad as in Plecotus auritus. 



Measurements: See tables 7, 13. 



Remarks: Until Cockrum's capture of a specimen in southeastern 

 Arizona in 1955 (Cockrum, 1956b, p. 546), this species had been 

 known only by two Mexican specimens which had served individually 

 as types for Corynorhinus phyllotis G. M. Allen and Idionycteris 

 mexicanus Anthony. These names have been shown to be synony- 

 mous (Handley, 1956, p. 53). The two Mexican specimens are 

 almost identical. Compared with them, the example from Arizona 

 is larger, its tragus is more broadly rounded (more blunt) distally, 

 and the bat is more pallid throughout. Dorsally its fur is more 

 buffy, less yellowish brown, and its ears and membranes are more 

 grayish, less brownish. These differences may represent geographic 

 variation, but it hardly seems worthwhile to apply a new subspecific 

 name until additional specimens, now available, are studied. 



Habitat: Very little is known of the natural history of this species. 

 The Arizona specimen was taken at 1 :00 a.m. on 30 May 1955 in a 

 mist net stretched across an artificial swimming pool on the lawn of 



' Holotype: AMNH 62260; adult female, skin and skull; collected 17 June 1922 by W. W. Brown; Miqui- 

 hauna [=Miquihuana?], Tamaulipas; collector's No. 2. This locality is on the eastern flank of the Sierra 

 Madre Oriental, at about 5,000 feet elevation, near the upper edge of the Lower Austral Zone (Goldman, 

 1951, p. 263). 



