200 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 69 



posterior border of the interfemoral membrane, and simple, oblique, 

 instead of bifid, transverse cutting edge of upper incisors. The teeth 

 are 32 in number. 



VAMPYROPS HELLERI Peters 

 Heller's Bat 



Vampyrops helleri Peters, Monatsber. k. preuss. Akad. Wissensch. Berlin, 



1866, p. 392. Type from Mexico. 

 J'ampyrops zarhinus H. Allen, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1891, 



p. 400. Type from Bas Obispo, Canal Zone. 1 



Heller's bat is little known and its status not entirely clear, no 

 specimens from the type region being available for comparison. But 

 the original account applies so well to the Panama animal that its 

 identification seems certain. Vampyrops zarhinus, a name also 

 applicable to the Isthmian species, is therefore placed in synonymy. 



Heller's bat has white face stripes and a white median dorsal line 

 arranged about as in Vampyrodes, Chiroderma and Uroderma. It 

 may usually be distinguished from the Isthmian representatives of 

 these genera, however, by smaller size. The forearm measures about 

 39 millimeters. The edges of the ears are distinctly yellowish in life, 

 as in Uroderma bilobatum, which it approaches in size and general 

 appearance, but the densely furred, instead of naked, border of the 

 interfemoral membrane is distinctive. 



The species as now understood ranges from southern Mexico at 

 least as far south as Cana in eastern Panama, where a single speci- 

 men was obtained by me near the entrance to the tunnel of an old 

 mine. Specimens from northern Venezuela are apparently indis- 

 tinguishable from Panama examples and the species probably reaches 

 Brazil. As Vampyrops zarhinus, Thomas (1903a, p. 40) listed a 

 specimen from Sevilla Island, off the southern coast of western 

 Panama where it was collected by J. H. Batty. In regard to the 

 record Mr. Thomas in a recent letter says : " The specimen is cer- 

 tainly what I always look upon as zarhinus, but not having the type 

 for comparison I cannot be absolutely sure I am right. The skull 

 quite agrees with examples from Ecuador and Para." Among the 

 bats collected in Panama by August Busck were two immature males 

 of Vampyrops helleri from Cabima, of which forearm measurements, 

 39 and 39.6 millimeters, respectively, were published by Miller (1912, 



P-25). 



Specimens examined : Cabima, 2 ; Cana, I. 



1 The type specimen in the Museum of Comparative Zoology bears on the 

 label " Obispo, Panama, Hassler Expedition, 1872," and the original assign- 

 ment of the species to Brazil appears to have been an error. 



