Mammalia , Chiroptera , Phyllostomidae , Lampronycteris brachyotis ( Dobson , 1879 ) : First record in the state of Paraná , southern Brazil

1 Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Programa de PósGraduação em Ecologia. Caixa Postal 6109. CEP 13083-970. Campinas, SP, Brazil. 2 Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Laboratório de Biologia e Parasitologia de Mamíferos Silvestres Reservatórios. Avenida Brasil, 4365, Manguinhos. CEP 21040-360. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 3 Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Laboratório de Mastozoologia. BR 465, km 47. CEP 23890-000. Seropédica, RJ, Brazil.

During bat field studies conducted at the Reserva Natural Morro da Mina (RNMM), an conservation unit in state of Paraná, we captured one specimen of Lampronycteris brachyotis (Dobson, 1879).The RNMM, comprises an area of 3,400 ha in Antonina and Morretes municipalities (25°21' -25°25' S, 48°46' -48°51' W; Figure 1) in the Paraná coastal plains.The reserve neighbors the Serra do Mar and Guaraqueçaba Environmental Protection Areas, in the largest contiguous remnants of Atlantic Forest in Brazil (SOS Mata Atlântica and INPE 2008).The main vegetation types are pioneer formations under marine and river-flooding influence (Veloso et al. 1991), and the subformations are lowland, submontane, and dense moist forests (Ferretti and Britez 2006).Secondary vegetation occur as well, resulting from the disturbance of the original vegetation.Thus, the reserve is now represented by a mix of initial, middle and advanced states of succession (Marília Borgo, personal communication).Following Köppen's classification, the climate of the region is Cfa, or mesothermic subtropical humid.Average annual temperature is between 20.8 and 22 °C, with annual precipitation above 2,000 mm, occurring mostly from January to March.The average air humidity is 85 % (Ferretti and Britez 2006).Bat samplings at RNMM were conducted with mist nets opened from ground to canopy (about 25 m of height) in tree-fall gaps on the "Trilha da Samambaia" (25°22'749" S and 48°48'415" W, 43 m above sea level).This site is located in a submontane forest area that was submitted to selective logging and is in advanced stage of regeneration.The nets (12 x 3 m) were opened after sunset and kept opened until dawn in May 2008 to March 2009, three nights per month.The total netting effort, calculated following Straube and Bianconi (2002), was 64,584 m 2 x h.This effort resulted in 464 captures of 20 bat species.
The specimen of L. brachyotis, an adult male with scrotal testis, was captured in 29 March 2009, at 19:53 h, after 299 hours of effort, at seven meters height.This species forages mainly next to trees' canopy, where it catches insects on the foliage (Weinbeer and Kalko 2004).It also has an unique behavior among insectivores Phyllostominae, capturing prey during the flight, above canopy (Weinbeer and Kalko 2004) The specimen (Figure 2) has all characters reported to L. brachyotis (Sanborn 1949;Medellín et al. 1985;Genoways and Williams 1986;Nogueira et al. 2007): dorsal fur orange brown, with pale orange basis; head, face and throat bright orange; ventral fur pale orange; ears, wings and interfemural membranes dark brown; calcar longer than foot; pinnae short and with pointed tips; interauricular band absent; third metacarpal longest, fifth shortest; second phalanx of wing digits III and V longer than first; orbital foramen between the second upper premolar and the first molar; first pair of upper incisors chisel-shaped and in line with canines; second pair of upper incisors bifid, with more elongated inner cusp, and in contact with central incisor; second lower premolar reduced relative to both first and third, which are subequal in size.The monotypic genus Lampronycteris Sanborn 1949 has been regarded as a subgenus of Micronycteris Gray 1866 (Sanborn 1949;Koopman 1994;Simmons 1996).However, recent studies have shown that Micronycteris (sensu Sanborn) is not monophyletic, and that Lampronycteris and other erstwhile subgenera (Glyphonycteris, Neonycteris, and Trinycteris) should be restored to generic rank (Simmons and Voss 1998;Wetterer et al. 2000).Lampronycteris brachyotis is distributed from Oaxaca (Mexico) to Guyana, French Guiana, and Brazil, including Peru and Trinidad (Simmons 2005).In Brazil, this species occurs in Amazon, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest biomes, with records in Amazonas, Pará, Piauí, Bahia, Tocantins, Espírito Santo and São Paulo states (Figure 1) (Nogueira et al. 2007).However, L. brachyotis was not yet recorded in the state of Paraná (Reis et al. 2008), nor in any other state of southern Brazil (Nogueira et al. 2007).
Lampronycteris brachyotis is associated with well preserved habitats and appears to be sensitive to habitat disturbance (Medellín et al. 1983).This bat roosts in hollow trunks of trees, caves, mines, and old buildings (Medellín et al. 1983;Taddei and Pedro 1996).They feed on insects, fruits, nectar and pollen, being classified as gleaning insectivores (Weinbeer and Kalko 2004) or gleaning omnivores (Kalko et al. 1996). Humprey et al. (1983) found equal amounts of arthropods and fruits in the fecal pellets of this species.Group size is usually small (approximately 10 individuals per colony), although Medellín et al. (1983) have found a sea cave in Veracruz, Mexico, harboring about 300 individuals.Evidence of a polygynous mating system is also available from these latter authors.L. brachyotis appeared in the "Least Concern" category of the World Threatened Species List, because it was considered that "given the extent of its range, it is unlikely to be declining rapidly enough to qualify for inclusion in a threat category" (Ochoa et al. 2008).
The specimen collected represents the first record of L. brachyotis for the state of Paraná and for southern Brazil, thereby extending southward its known geographical distribution.Currently, 62 species of bats are recorded for Paraná (Reis et al. 2008;Scultori et al. 2009a;b).This record corroborates the results of other studies (e.g., Miranda et al. 2006a;b;Miranda et al. 2007;Gazarini and Bernardi 2007;Scultori et al. 2009a;b) that indicate the need for increasing sampling efforts in order to obtain a better knowledge about distribution patterns, natural history, and conservation status of the bat species in Paraná.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Location of the submontane forest (A) where Lampronycteris brachyotis was captured in Reserva Natural Morro da Mina, state of Paraná (black).Additional Brazilian states where this species is known to occur are in gray.The dotted line is the highway PR-340.