Distribution of Promops davisoni Thomas , 1921 ( Chiroptera : Molossidae ) in Peru with a new record and southward range extension

Promops davisoni is a poorly known insectivorous bat represented by fewer than two dozen specimens in collections. These species are endemic from the Andean western slopes of Ecuador and Peru where it is known from the Mongoya River, province of Manabí, central Ecuador to the Santuario Nacional Lagunas de Mejia, Arequipa department, southwestern Peru. We report a new record of P. davisoni from Pampa Alta, Tacna department, Peru. This new specimen documents a 125 km range extension and the southernmost record of P. davisoni from Peru.

The family Molossidae is represented by 11 genera and 39 species in the New World (Simmons 2005;Eger 2008;Baker et al. 2009;Gregorin and Chiquito 2010;Medina et al. 2014), of which 29 species have been reported from Peru (Pacheco et al. 2009;Gregorín and Chiquito 2010;Medina et al. 2012;Díaz 2011;Medina et al. 2014).Promops Gervais, 1855 is a molossid genus widely distributed in Central and South America, where three species are currently recognized (Gregorin and Chiquito 2010): Promops centralis Thomas, 1915;Promops nasutus Spix, 1823;and Promops davisoni Thomas, 1921.Members of the genus Promops are elusive and rare insectivorous bats with few specimens available in museum collections and scarce information regarding to its natural history (Freeman 1981;Peters et al. 2002).The taxonomic history of P. davisoni is complex being mostly treated as a synonym or subspecies of P. centralis and/or P. nasutus until its revision by Gregorin and Chiquito (2010) who recognized it as a valid species.Furthermore, Gregorin and Chiquito (2010) restrict the distribution of P. davisoni to localities on the west of the Andes from central Ecuador to central Peru and found it to be allopatric from other species of the genus.The holotype of P. davisoni (BM 21.5.21.1) is deposited in the British Museum of Natural History, London, UK (BM) and was collected near Lima (Thomas 1921), other Peruvian specimens of P. davisoni are deposited in the following collections: American Museum of Natural History (AMNH); Colección de Mastozoología, Centro de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Lima, Peru (CEBIOMAS); Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH); Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (MACN); Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (MUSM); Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional San Agustín de Arequipa (MUSA); National Museum of Natural History, and Smithsonian Institution (NMNH).Ortiz de la Puente (1951) reported this species from Talara in Piura department (FMNH 54948,54949,and 54950), and from Barranco (MUSM 232), Chosica (MUSM 229), Miraflores (MUSM 230) and Matucana (MUSM 3054) in Lima department.Southernmost record of this species in Peru were reported by Velásquez (1992) from Ica department, and Zeballos et al. (2001) from the Santuario Nacional Lagunas de Mejía in Arequipa department (as P. centralis) (this specimen is deposited in MUSA) although, these last two records were not considered by Gregorin and Chiquito (2010).Pacheco et al. (2009) in the last updated list of Peruvian mammals highlighted the occurrence of P. davisoni in the Peruvian coast (as P. nasutus) based on two specimens from Lima and Piura (MUSM 229,754).Recently Velazco et al. (2013) collected this species from Talara in Piura department (CEBIOMAS 222), in addition to finding remains in owl pellets of

NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION
was preserved in alcohol with the skull removed and deposited in the mammal collection of the Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de Tyto alba (Aves, Strigiformes, Tytonidae).In this study, we report the first record of P. davisoni for Tacna department, Peru and a southward extension from its known geographical distribution.
Our new specimen of P. davisoni (MUSM 42359) was an adult female captured at Pampa Alta, district of Ite, province of Jorge Basadre, Tacna department, Peru (17°51ʹ47.3ʺS, 070°58ʹ10.4ʺW; 162 m, Figure 1).Pampa Alta is located in the Valley of Locumba, one of the three most important valleys in Tacna department.Pampa Alta is surrounded by large desert areas, gullies, and dry riverbeds with abundant xeric vegetation (Vizcarra 2010).To the west lies the Pacific Ocean and the Ite wetlands, a 12 km long artificial wetlands produced from the deposition of mine tailings on the beach and the expansion of the agricultural frontier (Pulido and Tabilo-Valdivieso 2001).The specimen of P. davisoni was collected using mist nets by Marisel Flores (MFQ 008) over an agricultural reservoir during a field expedition carried out on April 6 2013 (permit No. 081-2013-AG-DGFFS-DGEFFS) during dry season (Figure 2).It  San Marcos (Figure 3).The specimen was compared with seven MUSM specimens of P. davisoni from northern and central of Peru (Appendix 1).Other insectivorous bats known to occur at Pampa Alta and in the Locumba valley include Amorphochilus schnablii, Histiotus macrotus, H. montanus, Mormopterus kalinowskii, Myotis atacamensis, and Tadarida brasiliensis (Aragón and Aguirre 2014).In addition to this new record, we examined the feces of our specimen using a stereomicroscope with 40× magnification; the feces were previously disaggregated using distilled water and were preserved in alcohol.
Based on the original description and reanalysis of the holotype made by Thomas (1921) and Gregorin and Chiquito (2010) respectively, the specimen MUSM 42359 presents all diagnostic characters of the species: the dorsal pelage is dark brown at the hair tips giving it a dark appearance, whereas the basal part of the dorsal fur is whitish, forming a clear band that extends about half of the length of each hair; lighter ventral fur that contrast with the dorsal pelage; the forearm length (FA = 50.0mm) is within the range of the species (47.6-52.0mm) and greatest length of skull (GLS = 18.25 mm) which is close to the proposed range (GLS = 18.7-20.2mm) for this species.The external measurements of our specimen are: TL (total body length) = 122 mm; T (tail length) = 58 mm; HF (length of hind foot) = 8 mm; E (ear length) = 14.5 mm; Wt (total weight) = 50 g.Other measurements of MUSM 42359 (condyloincisive length, CIL; postorbital breadth, POB; maxillary toothrow length, C-M; upper molar breadth, M-M; upper canine breadth, CC; zygomatic breadth, ZB; mastoid breadth, MAB; braincase breadth, BCB; greatest length of mandible, GLM; lower toothrow length, Cm; length of forearm, FA; total length of third metacarpal, III MET; total length of fourth metacarpal, IV MET; total length of fifth metacarpal, V MET) are provided in Table 1 for comparison with other MUSM specimens and the material examined by Gregorin and Chiquito (2010).
In comparison with other specimens of P. davisoni of northern and central Peru, our specimen (MUSM 42359) is smaller, which could indicate a latitudinal variation (clinal variation) of the species.This variation in size along a latitudinal gradient also has been observed in P. centralis with specimens from northern latitudes (Central America) being larger than those from southern latitudes (Argentina).The other examined specimens of P. davisoni (MUSM 230,231,232,3054,and 6654), including the specimens previously reviewed by Pacheco et al. (2009) (MUSM 229,754), show a slight decreasing in measurement ranges at the external and craniodental level (Table 1).This could reinforce the presence of a clinal variation in P. davisoni with specimens from northern distributions being larger than those from southern distributions; however, this possibility requires the analysis of more samples from southern Peru.Gregorin and Chiquito (2010) defined that the dorsal pelage of P. davisoni is light or cinnamon brown but the dorsal pelage in MUSM 42359 is dark brown.This observation strengthens the variability of this diagnostic character in some specimens and is the reason why this species was previously synonymized with P. centralis (Koopman 1978;Ascorra et al. 1993;Pacheco et al. 1995;Eger 2008) or P. nasutus (Genoways and Williams 1979;Pacheco et al. 2009).The MUSM 42359 represents the southernmost record of P. davisoni, extending the known geographic range of the species about 125 km to the south (from the Santuario Nacional Lagunas de Mejía in Arequipa department; Zeballos et al. 2001), and the first record of the genus and species for Tacna department (Figure 4).Thus, this new record increases the bat diversity of Tacna department to nine species (Aragón and Aguirre 2014).In addition in feces revision of MUSM 42359 we found scales, eyes, proboscis, and legs of moths (Lepidoptera) (Figure 5).P. davisoni probably also occurs in northern  Chile, where habitats are very similar to those in Tacna department.The future use of high mist nets, acoustic surveys, and searching for roosts in crevices, caves, and buildings seems certain to increase our knowledge about the occurrence, natural history, and population status of bats in this still poorly known region.dad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos) for their comments and suggestions in the development of this work.Dr. Robert S. Voss (American Museum of Natural History) for his suggestions and review of an earlier version of this manuscript.We also thank Gandhy Portugal, Marcela Oversluijs, Josmell Ticona, Néstor Cáceres, Julissa Naquiche, Natham Smedley and the members of the Programa de Conservación de Murciélagos del Perú -Sede Tacna (PCMP) for their great support in the fieldwork without which it would not have been possible.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Specimen of Promops davisoni (MUSM 42359) collected in Pampa Alta, Ite, Jorge Basadre, Tacna, Peru. A. Live adult female after being captured with a mist net; B. Characteristics of pelage (dorsal view), a clear basal band that extends about half length of each hair is observed.Scale bar: 1 cm.Photographs by Marisel Flores.

Table 1 .
Measurements of the new record from Peru of Promops davisoni (MUSM 42359), specimens reviewed in this study and specimens from Ecuador and Peru reviewed by Gregorin y Chiquito (2010).