Kalko's round-eared bat (''Lophostoma kalkoae'') is a species of

leaf-nosed bat The New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are found from southern North America to South America, specifically from the Southwest United States to northern Argentina. They are ecologically the most varied and diverse family within the order ...

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 ...

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 Cos ...

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 2012 by Paúl Velazco and Alfred Gardner. 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 ...

was collected in Soberanía National Park in

in October 1998. The

specific epithet 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 ...

"''kalkoae''" is in honor of Elisabeth K. V. Kalko. Kalko had collected the holotype and the

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Of ...

for this species; Velazco and Gardner stated that she has "contributed in significant ways to the understanding of bat behavior and ecology worldwide."

Description

It is a medium-sized member of its genus, with a forearm length of . The fur on its back is long and dark brown, while the fur on its ventral side is white on the chest and pale brown on its sides.

Biology and ecology

Little is known about the biology of this species. A small colony of 12 individuals was documented inside a hollowed-out '' Azteca''

ant nest 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 ...

situated on a tree so that the nest was off the ground. A pregnant female was once documented in October.

Range and habitat

As of 2016, the species has not been documented outside of the type locality in Panama, Soberanía National Park.

Conservation

As of 2016, it is evaluated as a

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 ...

species 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, as a recently described species, its ecology and natural history are not yet well-known.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15039828 Mammals described in 2012 Endemic fauna of Panama Bats of Central America Lophostoma