The Guadeloupe big brown bat (''Eptesicus guadeloupensis'') is a species of

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 familie ...

. It is found only on the island of

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

. It is one of the eleven species of bat found on

, and one of three that are

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 ...

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described by Genoways and Baker in 1975. 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 several ...

used for the species description was collected in July 1974 by the authors in eastern

Baie-Mahault Baie-Mahault is a commune in the overseas department and region of Guadeloupe, France. It is the second most populated commune of Guadeloupe, after Les Abymes. The extensive industrial zone of Jarry in Baie-Mahault is by far the most industria ...

. They believed that it was most closely related to the

big brown bat The big brown bat (''Eptesicus fuscus'') is a species of vesper bat distributed widely throughout North America, the Caribbean, and the northern portion of South America. It was first described as a species in 1796. Compared to other microbat ...

, ''Eptesicus fuscus''. They placed it in the ''fuscus'' group of the genus ''Eptesicus'', as defined by Davis in 1966. Before the description of the Guadeloupe big brown bat, the only other member of the ''fuscus'' group was its identifier, ''Eptesicus fuscus'': the

. Its

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''guadeloupensis'' is a Latinized version of Guadeloupe, where the bat is found.

Description

It is the largest member of its genus that occurs in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

. Its wing membranes are black in color. Its fur is bicolored, with individual hairs black at the base and lighter at the tip. The hairs are chocolate brown at the tip on its back, and buffy at the tip on its belly. From snout to tail, it is long. Its forearm is long. Ears are long, tail is long, and hind foot is long.

Biology

Like all other members of its genus, it is

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

with 50 chromosomes and a

fundamental number 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 48. It 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 ...

. During the day, it is thought to roost in trees within

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

s. It is infrequently encountered, therefore little is known about its reproduction. A post- lactating female and a juvenile female were once encountered in late July, suggesting that females could give birth in May or June.

Range and habitat

It is

to the

Basse-Terre Island Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

, which is in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...

of the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

. It is encountered in

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...

s and

s. It is most often found at low elevations, from above sea level.

Conservation

It is currently listed as

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 ...

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 ...

. Major threats to this species include

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, hurricanes, and the spread of exotic, invasive species such as rats, mice, and mongooses. It may also be threatened by competition with the native

velvety free-tailed bat The velvety free-tailed bat or Pallas's mastiff bat (''Molossus molossus''), is a bat species in the family Molossidae. Description ''M. molossus'' is a medium-sized bat, with a length of and with a wingspan of . This species is brown in color ...

, which is abundant.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q303189 Eptesicus Bats of the Caribbean Endemic fauna of Guadeloupe Mammals of Guadeloupe Bat, Guadeloupe big Mammals described in 1975 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot