Van Gelder's bat or Van Gelder's big-eared bat (''Bauerus dubiaquercus'') is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It is found in Belize,

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

, and Mexico. The species is monotypic within its genus. It is part of the tribe

Antrozoini Antrozoini is a tribe (taxonomy), tribe of bats in the subfamily Vespertilioninae of the family Vespertilionidae. It contains the pallid bat (''Antrozous pallidus''), Van Gelder's bat (''Bauerus dubiaquercus''), the genus ''Rhogeessa'', and the f ...

within the subfamily

Vespertilioninae The Vespertilioninae are a subfamily of vesper bats from the family Vespertilionidae. Classification Subfamily Vespertilioninae *Tribe Antrozoini **Genus '' Antrozous'' *** Pallid bat, ''Antrozous pallidus'' **Genus ''Bauerus'' ***Van Gelder ...

and is related to the pallid bat (''Antrozous pallidus''). The bat is found in forest habitat from sea level to elevations as high as 2300 m, although not usually above 1300 m, and is

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

and

crepuscular In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal, vespertine, or both. This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylig ...

. It apparently has a fragmented distribution, and is threatened by deforestation.

Taxonomy and etymology

The bat was discovered by

Richard Van Gelder Richard George Van Gelder (December 17, 1928 – February 23, 1994) was an American mammalogist who served as the Curator of Mammalogy for the American Museum of Natural History in New York for more than twenty-five years. Career Among his acc ...

, then curator of mammalogy at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. The bat was collected on the AMNH Puritan Expedition to Baja California in 1957 on the Tres Maria Islands (south of Baja) by Richard Zweifel (expedition herpetologist) and Oakes Plimpton (expedition assistant). Van Gelder dubbed the bat "dubiaquercus" in honor of the collectors: ''dubia'' means "doubt" in Latin, as ''zweifel'' does in German; ''quercus'' is Latin for "oak".

Range and habitat

Van Gelder's bat is found in Central America where its range includes Belize,

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, Mexico, and Nicaragua. It has been documented at a range of elevations from above sea level.

Conservation

As of 2018, it is evaluated as a

near-threatened species A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. It meets the criteria for this classification because it is locally uncommon throughout its range; it is experiencing significant population declines; and its habitats are "highly fragile".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q133199 Vesper bats Bats of Central America Bats of Mexico Near threatened biota of Mexico Near threatened fauna of North America Mammals described in 1959 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Fauna of the Southern Pacific dry forests Petén–Veracruz moist forests