Monophyllus plethodon luciae Miller 1902

Monophyllus plethodon luciae Miller 1902 View in CoL

Specimens examined (17).— Codrington , 3 blocks north of airport, 3 ( NMNH) ; Dark Cave , 17°37'26.1"N, 61°45'12.1"W, 24 m, 8 ( TTU) GoogleMaps ; Dominic , 4.3 km E Codrington, 17°38'26.6"N, 61°47'05.8"W, 14 m, 6 ( TTU) GoogleMaps .

Specimens captured/released (11).—Dark Cave, 3; Dominic, 7; New Cave, 1.

Additional record.—Dark Cave (Schwartz and Jones 1967).

The previous report of this species on Barbuda was based on a single female obtained by Hummelinck and deposited in Rijksmuseum van Natuurliijke Historie in Leiden. Forearm and cranial measurements of a sample of five males and five females are given in Table 1 View Table 1 . Males averaged larger than females in all measurements except length of forearm in which females were larger and the postorbital constriction in which the means were the same. These differences were significant for three of the breadth measurements, with the sexes differing at the P ≤ 0.01 level for zygomatic breadth and breadth across upper molars and at the P ≤ 0.05 level for mastoid breadth. When compared with a sample of three males and two females from Guadeloupe ( Baker et al. 1978) and three males from Antigua ( Pedersen et al. 2006), these measurements of bats from Barbuda show almost complete overlap, with the exception of the breadth across the upper molars, which was larger in the three specimens from Antigua. A single male from Nevis ( Pedersen et al. 2003) and a single female from Montserrat ( Pedersen et al. 1996) fall within the range of variation of measurements of the sample from Barbuda for all measurements except mastoid breadth, which was 0.2 and 0.3, respectively, smaller than the smallest individual of the corresponding sex from Barbuda. We follow Schwartz and Jones (1967) in placing all populations of this species from St. Lucia northward in the Lesser Antilles in the subspecies M. p. luciae , but we recognize that the variation represented among samples in the northern Lesser Antilles call for a re-evaluation of geographic variation in this species now that larger samples are available.

According to Schwartz and Jones (1967), Hummelinck’s field notes for the female that he obtained indicate that “the bat was found dead near the entrance of Dark Cave,” but no other bats were observed in the cave. No M. plethodon were identified in Dark Cave during the 1994 visit, but 11 non-reproductive and lactating females were collected there in 2003 with mist nets set across the main chamber. They were seen hanging in small groups from the ceilings of side chambers. None of these bats were seen roosting near the freshwater pools. Two males and a female from Codrington were taken on 17 January 1983 under unknown circumstances. One of those males had enlarged testes. A single non-reproductive female was caught in New Cave in 1994 (weight, 13.4; forearm, 40.7). Thirteen M. plethodon were captured along a road leading into the orchard at Dominic in 2003. A single 2 m by 2 m mist net filled the space between the acacia trees growing along both sides of the road at this point. The acacias and other dry thorny vegetation were relatively low in this area, not exceeding 4 m in height, but the road did form a distinct flyway for the bats. Captures on 2 and 3 June 2003 included six males and 18 females, six of which were lactating and 12 which were non-reproductive. The average weight of six adult males was 15.6 (15.2-17.2), with testes lengths averaging 3.2 (3.0-4.0). The mean weight for 15 of the 18 females was 15.1 (12.5-18.4).