The big red bat (''Aeorestes egregius'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

from South and Central America.

Taxonomy

It was described as a new species in 1870 by German naturalist

Wilhelm Peters Wilhelm Karl Hartwich (or Hartwig) Peters (22 April 1815 in Koldenbüttel – 20 April 1883) was a German naturalist and explorer. He was assistant to the anatomist Johannes Peter Müller and later became curator of the Berlin Zoological Muse ...

. Peters placed it in the now-defunct genus ''Atalpha'', with a binomial of ''Atalpha egregia''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

was collected in the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian state of Santa Catarina by

Hermann Burmeister Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister (also known as Carlos Germán Conrado Burmeister) (15 January 1807 – 2 May 1892) was a German Argentine zoologist, entomologist, herpetologist, botanist, and coleopterologist. He served as a professor at the Uni ...

Description

It has black flight membranes and its fur is a consistent shade of red over its entire body. Two individuals captured in Honduras had forearm lengths of and body weights of . Its ear length is approximately . Its wingspan is approximately .

Range and habitat

The big red bat is found in Central and South America. Its range includes

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

, and Suriname. In 1998, the species was documented in Honduras for the first time. This marked a extension of the species' range from the previously known northern limit.

Conservation

This species is infrequently encountered. The capture of two individuals in Honduras in 1998 marked the fifth and sixth individuals ever documented. Due to the lack of information on its ecology, geographic extent, population size, and threats it faces, the IUCN lists this species as data deficient as of 2016.

References

External links

Image of a specimen collected in Suriname
{{DEFAULTSORT:bat, Big red Lasiurini Bats of South America Bats of Brazil Mammals described in 1870 Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Bats of Central America Mammals of Suriname Mammals of French Guiana