First record of Molossus molossus (Pallas, 1766) (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Here I report the first record of the bat Molossus molossus in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil. A colony of this species was recorded in the urban area of Lagoa Salgada, in the attic of a building. In January 2014, I captured 90 individuals of M. molossus using mist nets around the roost. The present record extends the distribution of M. molossus to far-northeastern Brazil and adds a new marginal occurrence site for this species. DOI: 10.15560/10.6.1520 Figure 1. Day roost of a Molossus molossus (Chiroptera: Molossidae) colony in a school building in the urban area of Lagoa Salgada, state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil, with a general view of the surrounding area (a) (Satellite image source: Google Earth ® ) and frontal (b) and lateral views (c and d) of the roost, where mist nets were set to capture bats. 1521Barros | First record of Molossus molossus in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil caught on the nets. Among the captured individuals, the sex ratio was close to 1:1 (46 males and 44 females) ( Table 1). Approximately 32% of the individuals were juvenile, and among the adults 65% were reproductive. Of all adult females (N = 28), 35% were pregnant and lactating, 18% were pregnant, and 7% were lactating; of all adult males (N = 33), 70% had scrotal testes. The average forearm length of adults was 41.90 mm (standard deviation = 1.03) for males and 41.67 mm (standard deviation = 1.09) for females, and the average body mass was 15.1 g (standard deviation = 1.4) for males and 14.2 g (standard deviation = 1.2) for females.The individuals were released at the capture site at the same night, except ten specimens (five males and five females) collected as vouchers. These specimens were killed by inhaling sulfuric ether, fixed in formaldehyde (10% solution), preserved in ethanol (70% solution), and deposited in the Mammal Collection of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Numbers UFPE 3068, UFPE 3069, UFPE 3070, UFPE 3071, UFPE 3072, UFPE 3073, UFPE 3074, UFPE 3075, UFPE 3076, and UFPE 3077). The specimens were taxonomically identified according to the keys and descriptions of Gregorin and Taddei (2002), Gregorin et al. (2011), and Costa et al. (2013). The diagnostic features supporting the identification of these specimens as M. molossus include: (1) relatively large forearm length (39.25-43.34 mm) comparing to the others "small" Molossus; (2) elongated skull, narrow rostrum, and non-globose brain case; (3) infraorbital foramen opening more frontally than laterally; (4) elongated (non-spatulate) upper incisors with pincer-like tips; and (6) long (≌ 5 mm) dorsal hairs with a white basal band.The present record extends the distribution of M. molossus in northeastern Brazil and provides a new (Figure 3). These data indicate that the distribution of M. molossus probably includes the entire state of Rio Grande do Norte, which should be confirmed by further studies. In the tropics, the reproduction of insectivorous bats is associated with rainfall, which influences prey avail...

The bats of Rio Grande do Norte state, northeastern Brazil

“…The richness of bats in RN is greater than previously known. Of the 38 species of bats previously reported in RN (Feijó & Nunes 2010, Ferreira et al 2010, Barros 2014, Garcia et al 2014, Cordero-Schmidt et al 2016, Basílio et al 2017, Cordero-Schmidt et al 2017 in press) we found vouchers for only 29 species. However, by adding the 13 new species records that we present herein, the number of species with confirmed occurrence in the state is 42 (Table 1).…”

“…The earliest records of bats in RN date back to the past century, when Sanborn (1937), Goodwin (1959), Webster (1993), and Jones & Hood (1993) reported few bat records from the coastal region of the state (municipality of Natal) and deposited the specimens in biological collections in United States. Studies on bats in RN slowly began to increase in this century, with new records and distributional expansions (Feijó & Nunes 2010, Barros 2014, Basílio et al 2017, ecology and natural history (Cordero-Schmidt et al 2016, Cordero-Schmidt et al 2017, community diversity (Barros et al 2017, Vargas-Mena et al in press), and subterranean fauna inventories (Ferreira et al 2010); including a bilbliographic review on the bat fauna in northeastern Brazil by Garcia et al (2014). Such studies together have recorded a richness of 38 species of bats in the state.…”

Bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) from the Nísia Floresta National Forest, with new records for the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil

“…Only the previous records of Dermanura cinerea and Glossophaga soricina are vouchered by specimens in collections (Handley Jr. 1987, Webster 1993. The seven new species records increase the current number of bat species from 25 to 32 in Rio Grande do Norte (Barros 2014, Garcia et al 2014.…”

The bat fauna (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of Carlos Botelho State Park, Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil, including new distribution records for the state of São Paulo

“…Distribution. In Brazil, the species is recorded in all biomes and in all states, except Rio Grande do Norte (Barros 2014, Reis et al 2017, Loureiro et al 2018. In São Paulo state the species is widely distributed, occurring in all the vegetational formations (Garbino 2016).…”