Bokermann's nectar bat (''Lonchophylla bokermanni'') is a

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

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 ...

from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

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 ...

. It feeds on nectar, and is listed as an endangered species.

Etymology

This species was discovered by Ivan Sazima and Marlies Sazima in 1974 in

Serra do Cipó National Park The Serra do Cipó National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó) is a national park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Location The park is in the Cerrado biome. It covers . It was created by decree 90.223 of 25 September 1984, modifi ...

. The species was described by Ivan Sazima, Luiz Vizotto, and Valdir Taddei in 1978.Sazima, I. V. A. N., Vizotto, L. D., & Taddei, V. A. (1978). Uma nova espécie de Lonchophylla da Serra do Cipó, Minas Gerais, Brasil (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae). Revista Brasileira de Biologia, 38(1), 81-89.(in Portuguese) It was named after Werner Carlos Augusto Bokermann—a prominent Brazilian

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

and former head of the bird department at the

São Paulo Zoo The São Paulo Zoo ( pt, Parque Zoológico de São Paulo) is the largest zoo in Brazil. With 824,529 m2 (82.45 hectares 03.7 acres of space in what was originally the Atlantic Forest, the zoo is south of the city of São Paulo. It displays m ...

.Beolens, B., Watkins, M., & Grayson, M. (2009). The eponym dictionary of mammals. JHU Press.

Taxonomy

While it was once thought to have a wider geographic range, a 2013 analysis concluded that the population of ''L. bokermanni'' in the

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

was actually a new, separate species, Peracchi's nectar bat.Dias, D., Esberard, C. E. L., & Moratelli, R. (2013). A new species of Lonchophylla (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) from the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil, with comments on L. bokermanni. Zootaxa, 3722(3), 347-360. The implications of this taxonomic split were part of the reason that this species' listing was changed to

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

in 2016 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 ...

, as it meant that it was not as widespread as previously thought.

Description

It is a larger member of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

. The forearm is long, and their total body length is . Their total

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is long, and they weigh approximately .Koopman, K. F. (1981). The distributional patterns of New World nectar-feeding bats. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 352-369. Their

dental formula Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiolo ...

is . The

nose-leaf A nose-leaf, or leaf nose, is an often large, lance-shaped nose, found in bats of the Phyllostomidae, Hipposideridae The Hipposideridae are a family of bats commonly known as the Old World leaf-nosed bats. While it has often been seen as a su ...

is approximately long and wide. The ears are short and broad, and are rounded at the tips. Ears are approximately long and wide. The tragus is about long and pointed at the tip. The lower lip is furrowed and lined with 4-6 warts. The tongue is long and protrusible, with papillae at the tip. The

calcar The calcar, also known as the calcaneum, is the name given to a spur of cartilage arising from inner side of ankle and running along part of outer interfemoral membrane in bats, as well as to a similar spur on the legs of some arthropods. The cal ...

is short but distinct, at long. The plagiopatagium attaches at the ankle. All the flight membranes are hairless and dark in color. Their fur is dense and soft. Fur on the dorsal side is yellowish brown to grayish brown, and darker than fur on the ventral, which is ash gray to grayish brown. The ears and nose-leaf are light brown. It can be distinguished from other members of its genus by its short upper and lower tooth rows, trilobulate lower

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, whe ...

s, distinctly shaped second upper

premolar The premolars, also called premolar teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the canine and molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per quadrant in the permanent set of teeth, making eight premolars total in the mouth ...

s, and narrow premolars and

molars The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...

Biology

This species is

nectarivorous In zoology, a nectarivore is an animal which derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Nectar as a food source presents a number of benefits a ...

, and forages by

trap-lining In ethology and behavioral ecology, trap-lining or traplining is a feeding strategy in which an individual visits food sources on a regular, repeatable sequence, much as trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually seen in species ...

. They hover as they drink from flowers. They are known to feed from Encholirium glaziovii and

Bauhinia ''Bauhinia'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae and tribe Bauhinieae, in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and Jo ...

flowers.Sazima, I., Vogel, S., & Sazima, M. (1989). Bat pollination of Encholirium glaziovii, a terrestrial bromeliad. Plant Systematics and Evolution, 168(3), 167-179. Each visit to a flower is brief, lasting only tenths of a second. The bat will circle a chosen flower before facing it to drink. Stomach analysis shows that they also consume pollen and

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...

s. Between foraging bouts, they will take 5-30 minute breaks on short trees. They forage alone. Possibly, they undergo short migrations in response to food availability. They have a

karyotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of metaphase chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is disce ...

of 28. The x-chromosome is medium-sized and

metacentric Metacentric may refer to: * Metacentric height The metacentric height (GM) is a measurement of the initial static stability of a floating body. It is calculated as the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre. A large ...

, while the y-chromosome is small and

acrocentric The centromere links a pair of sister chromatids together during cell division. This constricted region of chromosome connects the sister chromatids, creating a short arm (p) and a long arm (q) on the chromatids. During mitosis, spindle fibers a ...

.Almeida, B., Novaes, R. L. M., Aguieiras, M., de França Souza, R., Esbérard, C. E. L., & Geise, L. (2016). Karyotype of three Lonchophylla species (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) from Southeastern Brazil. Comparative cytogenetics, 10(1), 109.

Range and habitat

It is only found in the

Cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are t ...

of Brazil. What was thought in 2010 to be an expansion of the species' previous range into the

ended up as the discovery of a new, closely related species Peracchii's nectar bat.Pimenta, V. T., Machel, C. T., Fonseca, B. S., & Ditchfield, A. D. (2010). First occurrence of Lonchophylla bokermanni Sazima, Vizotto & Taddei, 1978 (Phyllostomidae) in Espírito Santo State, Southeastern Brazil. Chiroptera Neotropical, 16(2), 740-742. Bokermann's nectar bat has only been confirmed in

Jaboticatubas Jaboticatubas is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Minas Gerais This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais (MG), located in the Southeast R ...

Itambé do Mato Dentro Itambé do Mato Dentro is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Conceição do Mato Dentro. As of 2020, the estimated populatio ...

, and

Diamantina Diamantina may refer to: Geography Australia * Diamantina Bowen (1833-1893), ''grande dame'' of Queensland and the wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland. * ''Diamantina Cocktail'', 1976 album by Little River Band * Diam ...

, all of which are in the Brazilian state of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

Conservation

In 1996, it was listed as vulnerable by the

. In 2008, it was revised to

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

, but it has since been uplisted to

References

External links

Sazima Network
- Relevant Scientific Papers and Pictures. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1833710 Bats of Brazil Lonchophylla Mammals described in 1978 Endemic fauna of Brazil Fauna of the Cerrado