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Mammalia, Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae, Diaemus youngi: First confirmed record for
Ecuador and observations of its presence in museum collections.

C. Miguel Pinto!”
Juan P. Carrera”
Hugo Mantilla-Meluk'
Robert J. Baker’?

' Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University. Lubbock TX, 79409-3131.
E-mail: miguel.pinto@ttu.edu

*Museum of Texas Tech University. Lubbock TX, 79409

Diaemus youngi, the white-winged vampire bat, is
the locally rarest of the three species of vampire
bats (Koopman 1988). This species is widely
distributed in the lowlands of the Neotropical
region, from Tamaulipas, Mexico south to western
Colombia, and on the lowlands of the eastern
versant of the Andes from northern Argentina,
Paraguay and eastern Brazil north to the Guyanas
and Venezuela. Although this is a wide
distribution, few records are available throughout
this range. Most of the records are from the
Amazon Basin, with absence of confirmed records
in some countries of Central America (ie.
Guatemala and Belize) and South America (..e.
Ecuador) (Aguiar et al. 2006; Greenhall and
Schutt 1996; Koopman 1988). Here we report the
first record for the species in Ecuador.

A specimen of Diaemus youngi was collected on 3
August 2001 during the Sowell expedition to
northwestern Ecuador. This specimen, an adult
male prepared as skin, skull and tissues, 1s
deposited in the Museum of Texas Tech
University, with accession numbers TTU 85358
and TK 104586, and collector number RF-45
(René M. Fonseca). Ultimately, this specimen will
be deposited in the Museo de Zoologia, Pontificia
Universidad Catolica del Ecuador (QCAZ).
External and cranial measurements (in mm) of the
specimen are: total length, 85; hindfoot length, 17;
ear length, 12.80; forearm length, 52.96;
metacarpal III length, 53.41; greatest length of the
skull (no incisors included), 25.49; condylobasal
length, 22.89; zigomatic breadth, 14.28; mastoid
breadth, 13.25; braincase breadth, 13.27; braincase
height, 12.42; palatal length, 7.70; postpalatal
length, 10.82; postorbital constriction, 6.67;
interorbital breadth, 7.42; breadth across molars,
7.23; breadth across canines, 6.64; maxillary tooth

row length, 3.37; coronoid process length, 8.06;
mandibulary length, 16.01. Body weight, 42.9 g.
These measurements are within the known range
for the species, although they are above the mean
known for males (Greenhall and Schutt 1996;
Lopez-Forment and Téllez-Girén 2005; Swanepoel
and Genoways 1979).

This individual has the typical diagnostic features
of Diaemus youngi (Koopman 1988; Greenhall
and Schutt 1996) including: white wing tips;
thumbs with a single pad under metacarpal and
Shorter than in Desmodus rotundus, skull more
robust than in D. rotundus; and_postorbital
constriction less conspicuous than in D. rotundus.
The salivary glands were visible outside the
mouth when animal was disturbed, similar to that
reported by Greenhall and Schutt (1996). For
additional information on the morphology and
natural history of the three species of vampire bats
see Greenhall and Schmidt (1988). Additionally,
the ultrastructure of the submandibular gland of
the specimen included in this report (TTU 85358;
TK 104586) was described by Tandler and Phillips
(2002). This bat also differs substantially from D.
rotundus in gland morphology (Tandler et al. 1990).

The specimen of Diaemus youngi was collected
east of the town of San Lorenzo, province of
Esmeraldas, in northwestern Ecuador (01°17' N,
78°50' W; 53 m) (Figure 1). The collection site was
in a small farm, with patches of banana plants,
other cultivable trees, and introduced plants
typically associated with residencies in western
Ecuador. A few chickens were present in the yard
of the residency. This property is about 1 km west
of a fragment of secondary Chocoan forest.
Diaemus youngi was captured under fruit trees with
a mist net approximately 1.5 m above the ground.

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ge Nenezuela

<
®
S
O
©
=
©
oO

Diaemus youngi
@ Localities

HN > 1,000 mas!

rr T &T Tq
0 100 200 400
Kilometers

Figure 1. Records of Diaemus youngi in northwestern South America. Colombia: 1, Department of Choco:
Riosucio, Katios National Park, Vda. Sautata, 50-250 m, (ICN 7580); J. V. Rodriguez-M. PK. 2091 (Mufioz-S.
and Alberico 2004). 2, Department of Valle del Cauca: Loboguerrero, Valle Atuncelo, Arid cannon of Rio Dagua,
700 m, J. I. Borrero BV 65 (Mufioz-S. and Alberico 2004). 3, Buenaventura, Rio Raposo, 30 m (Aellen 1970;
Mufioz-S. and Alberico 2004). 4, Department of Guainia: Puerto Inirida, San Felipe (ROM 45304) (MaNIS 2006;
2007). 5, Department of Putumayo: Caqueta, Rio Mecaya, 185 m. P. Hershkovitz, 3 Mar 1952. 1 female, FMNH
72142; record reported by de la Torre (1956) without a specific locality as "A young adult from Colombia,
CNHM 72142". Ecuador: 6, Province of Esmeraldas: San Lorenzo, present study. Peru: 7, Department of Loreto:
Pebas, 1 female, Jan 28, 1928. BM 28.7.21.64. Type of D. y. cypselinus (Thomas 1928). 8, Department of
Ucayali: Yarimacocha, 1 male, Aug, 1946 (Sanborn 1949). 9, Biological Station "Panguana" (Hutterer et al. 1995).
Brazil: 10, State of Acre, Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor (Nogueira et al. 1999).

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Cabrera and Yepes (1940) mentioned the presence
of Diaemus youngi in the Ecuadorian Amazon,
without indicating voucher specimens, with the
following statement: "Aun tratandose de una
especie netamente amazonica, se consideran dos
formas geogrdficas distribuyéndose la_tipica
desde las Guayanas hasta el curso superior del
rio Amazonas, mientras mds al oeste y ya en la
parte oriental de Peru y Ecuador se localiza la
subespecie Diaemus youngi cypselinus"” (p. 65).
Based on this information, this species has been
reported as probable for the Ecuadorian Amazon
(e.g. Albuja 1999; Tirira 1999; 2007), although no
publication suggested the presence of this species
in the western versant of the Ecuadorian Andes
(Albuja 1999; Eisenberg and Redford 1999;
Emmons 1999; Tirira 1999; 2007). Cabrera and
Yepes (1940) mentioned that due to the lack of
extensive studies in the Neotropics, some species
distributions were extended in their work: "A la
compilacion natural de su estudio formal, se une
la dificultad de que muchas zonas aun no han sido
suficientemente exploradas y por lo tanto debe
suplirse su respectivo conocimiento zoogeogrdfico
mediante determinadas generalizaciones siempre
mesuradas o por algunas suposiciones de cierto
fundamento, a fin de suprimir en lo posible las
soluciones de continuidad que se presentan en el
drea abarcada por ciertas especies o subespecies
de amplia dispersion geografica" (p. 9). It seems
likely that the distribution of Diaemus youngi in
Cabrera and Yepes (1940) was a generalization,
because the closest locality to the Ecuadorian
Amazon was the type-locality of D. youngi
cypselinus in Pebas, in northeastern Peru (Thomas
1928). Additionally, there are no voucher
specimens of the species in 26 worldwide
museum collections that archive Ecuadorian
mammals (Carrera 2007). Even those where
Angel Cabrera worked (Museo Nacional de
Ciencias Naturales, Espafia; Museo de La Plata,
Argentina; and Museo Argentino de Ciencias
Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia") do not have
Ecuadorian specimens of Diaemus. Moreover, by
1940 only 10 specimens were known to exist in
collections: 7 from Brazil, 1 from Guyana, | from
Peru and | from Venezuela (Sanborn 1949).

Specimens of Diaemus youngi are rare in
scientific collections. In a search of the museum
databases in MaNIS (2006; 2007) 40 specimens
from 10 countries deposited in 8 museums were
available. Additionally, the AMNH (2006; 2007)
contains 36 specimens from 5 countries, mostly
from Trinidad and Tobago (22 specimens).
However, collections of the two other species of
vampire bats are more numerous. A total of 183
specimens of Diphylla ecaudata and 2,280
specimens of Desmodus rotundus where allocated
using the databases MaNIS (2006; 2007) and
AMNH (2006; 2007). Diaemus youngi forms
colonies (up to 30 individuals) in hollow trees and
caves (Goodwin and Greenhall 1961; Greenhall
and Schutt 1996). Some of the largest series of
specimens came from these aggregations, e.g. in
1988, 4 specimens of the AMNH from Trinidad
and Tobago were collected in a hollow tree
(AMNH 2006; 2007). Additionally, D. youngi
seems to be associated with human constructions;
10 out of 11 specimens collected in Paraguay
were associated with buildings (Lopez-Gonzalez
et al. 1998), and in eastern Peru D. youngi was
collected near human inhabitations (Hutterer et al.
1995). These findings are congruent with the
Ecuadorian specimen here reported.

Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to the memory of our
friend René Fonseca. Our special thanks to D.
Verzi of Museo de La Plata, Argentina (MLP),
and O. Vaccaro of Museo Argentino de Ciencias
Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" (MACN) for
confirming the absence of Ecuadorian specimens
of Diaemus youngi in their collections. S. Solari
read an early version of the manuscript and made
invaluable suggestions. S. Burneo, curator of
Museo de Zoologia, Pontificia Universidad
Catdlica del Ecuador (QCAZ) helped with the
logistics for the field work. Special thanks to the
curators of the 26 museums that provided data to
JPC for his study. We thank members of the 2001
Sowell Expedition that captured the specimens
here reported: R. Fonseca, J. Higginbotham, F.
Hoffmann, D. Parish, C. Phillips, and L.
Richardson.

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Received May 2007

Accepted July 2007
Published online August 2007

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