First records of Myotis nigricans (Schinz, 1821) (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) and two new localities for three bat species in Santa Fe province, Argentina

We present the first records of Myotis nigricans (Schinz, 1821) for Santa Fe province, Argentina. Four specimens were collected in the following localities: Esperanza (Las Colonias department), Laguna Paiva (La Capital department), and Rosario (Rosario department). These records extend the distribution area of M. nigricans 380 km to the south and increase the number of bat species in Santa Fe to 23. Additionally, Esperanza and Rafaela are added as new localities for Eumops glaucinus (Wagner, 1843), Molossops temminckii (Burmeister, 1854), and Lasiurus blossevillii (Lesson & Garnot, 1826).


Introduction
The province of Santa Fe, in the central-eastern region of Argentina, occupies an extensive plain area (10-150 m a.s.l., 132,638 km 2 ; Biasatti et al. 2016) where 4 phytogeographic provinces-Chaqueña, Espinal, Pampeana, and Paranaense-are represented (Cabrera 1994).Mainly in its northern zone, this province has suffered a high rate of deforestation, first by the wood industry and later by replacement of native forests by agriculture, mostly soy (Medan et al. 2011, Morello et al. 2012, Facciano and Diedrich 2013).Between 1915 and1956, nearly 2.9 million ha of forest were lost (Zarrilli 2008), and more recently, in the period 2007-2016 the loss of native forests reached 30,863 ha (Dirección de Bosques de la Nación, Secretaría de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable de la Nación, Unidad de Manejo del Sistema de Evaluación Forestal 2017).
In this study, we provide the first vouchered record of M. nigricans for Santa Fe and add 2 new localities for 3 species still poorly known in this province: the molossids Eumops glaucinus and Molossops temminckii, and the vespertilionid Lasiurus blossevillii.

Methods
Specimens from Esperanza and San José del Rincón were obtained in the course of the project "Ecoepidemiología de patógenos de importancia para la salud pública y animal en fauna sinantrópica del centro de la provincia de Santa Fe".They were captured in 12 m long mist nets opened from 20:00 to 2:00 during 3 consecutive nights.Our methods for handling and preparation were approved by the Ethics and Safety Committee of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Expte.FCV-0869428-17).License for collecting specimens was provided by the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente de la Provincia de Santa Fe (Expte No. 02101-00181129-9, Resolution No. 093/2018).Specimens were stored in the Museo Provincial de Ciencias Naturales "Florentino Ameghino" (MFA) of Santa Fe.Specimens from Laguna Paiva, Rafaela, and Rosario were collected and donated to the same museum by the Dirección General de Bioquímica y Farmacia, Laboratorio Central, Santa Fe province.
Unless otherwise stated, specimens were prepared as skin, skull, and skeleton.Tissue samples were also collected for some individuals and are preserved in 96% ethanol.These samples were also stored in the Museo Ameghino.External and cranial measurements were obtained according to Díaz et al. (1998) and Barquez et al. (1999).The taxonomic identification was carried out according to Díaz et al. (2011Díaz et al. ( , 2016) ) and descriptions were prepared following Barquez et al. (1999).Argentina, Santa Fe province, La Capital department, Laguna Paiva (31°19ʹS, 060°23ʹ W), 1 adult male (MFA-ZV-M 1331, preserved in 70% ethanol, later prepared as skin and skull), collected and donated by the Dirección General de Bioquímica y Farmacia, Laboratorio Central, Table 1.Measurements † of Myotis nigricans from Santa Fe province, Argentina, and comparative data provided by La Val (1973;neotype), Barquez (1999; multiple localities in Argentina), and Moratelli et al. (2011; multiple localities in South America).Argentina, Santa Fe province, Rosario department, Rosario (32°57ʹ S, 060°39ʹ W), 1 adult male (MFA-ZV-M 1391, preserved in 70% ethanol), collected and donated by the Dirección General de Bioquímica y Farmacia, Laboratorio Central, 2011, in the center of the city.

Vespertilionidae
Identification.The specimens studied present the following characters: forearm length between 32 and 36 mm; skull small and with a short face and no sagittal crest (Table 1; specimens donated not included due to skull damaged derived from rabies analysis); P2 aligned with other upper jaw teeth (Fig. 1); dorsal fur silky and bicolored, with a slight contrast between the dark base and the slightly paler tip; dark membranes; plagiopatagium attached at feet by a board band of membrane; and posterior border of the uropatagium lacking a fringe of hair.These features allow us to differentiate them from Myotis levis (Geoffroy, 1824), also present in the study area (Barquez et al. 1999, Pautasso 2008, Barquez and Díaz 2009, Moratelli et al. 2011, Díaz et al. 2016, Barquez et al. 2017).
Identification.The specimen agrees with descriptions of E. glaucinus provided by Barquez et al. (1999) and Barquez and Díaz (2009): length of forearm 63.2 mm; dorsal coloration blackish cinnamon, with the bases of hair lighter; tragus nearly square; ears united by a narrow band on the forehead; skull elongated and with a narrow rostrum and reduced sagittal crest; and M3 with the third commissure rudimentary.Dorsally, hairs are present over the arms, forearms, and along the sides of the body and plagiopatagium, whereas ventrally they extend only over the plagiopatagium and propatagium (Vaccaro 1992, Barquez et al. 1999).Because of its medium-sized body (for the genus), E. glaucinus can be confused with Eumops auripendulus (Shaw, 1800).These species, however, can be differentiated by coloration (dark or blackish brown in E. auripendulus vs paler in E. glaucinus), tragus shape (small and triangular in E. auripendulus vs small and square in E. glaucinus), and forearm length (61.0-69.0mm in E. auripendulus vs 58.0-64.5 in E. glaucinus).
Identification.The examined individuals agree with the description of M. temminckii by Barquez et al. (1999) and present the following characters: small body size (forearm 29.0-32.5 mm; it is the smallest molossid in Argentina); ears small, triangular, and well separated; snout elongated and flat; dorsal fur darker distally, presenting gray tones, and lighter at the base, with cream tones; and ventral fur cinnamon and extending over the membranes.Identification.Fur completely covering the dorsum of the uropatagium, but not extending beyond its posterior border.The lower part of the back has an orange fur, whereas the upper part is gray washed with reddish, with many hairs with the withe tips, similar to Lasiurus cinereus (Palisot de Beauvois, 1796), which is also present in the area.The ventral region is yellowish (Barquez et al. 1999, Aguirre 2007).However, the specimen collected shows a strongly reddish tone, especially in the neck area.Also, the ears are small and rounded, and the tragus and muzzle are short.The forearm length (40.12   mm) is within the range (37.7-41.3mm) for L. blossevillii (Barquez et al. 1999).

Discussion
The 4 collected specimens of M. nigricans correspond to the descriptions proposed by La Val (1973), Wilson and Laval (1974), Barquez et al. (1999), Moratelli et al. (2011), Díaz et al. (2016), and Barquez et al. (2017).Measurements provided here are close to those from the neotype designated by La Val (1973) and are within the range provided by Barquez et al. (1999) for Argentine specimens and by Moratelli et al. (2011) (Table 1).nigricans is widely distributed in South America, where it seems to absent only from Chile (Díaz et al. 2016).In Argentina, it can be found in the following provinces: Catamarca, Chaco, Corrientes, Formosa, Jujuy, Misiones, Salta, Santiago del Estero, and Tucuman (Barquez et al. 1999, Barquez andDíaz 2009).Thus, the new record from Rosario City, extends the known distribution of this species by approximately 380 km from the previous southernmost record in Sumampa (29°22ʹ S, 063°27ʹ W), Quebrachos department, Santiago del Estero province (Fig. 3) (Barquez et al. 1999).Ecologically, however, the new sites are similar to habitats of this species reported by Barquez et al. (1999).
Like M. nigricans, L. blossevillii is widely distributed in South America, lacking records only from Chile (Díaz et al. 2016).In Argentina, this species has been recorded only in the more northern and central provinces, including Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Cordoba, Corrientes, Entre Rios, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, Misiones, Salta, Santa Fe, San Juan, Santiago del Estero, and Tucuman (Barquez and Díaz 2009).To the previous records in Santa Fe, La Capital department (Barquez et al. 1999, Romano et al. 1999, Barquez 2006, Pautasso 2008), we added Rafaela City, Castellanos department, which represents both a new locality and new department record.
In South America, Eumops glaucinus is known to occur in the north of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela (Gardner 2008, Díaz et al. 2016).In Argentina, it can be found in Chaco, Jujuy, La Rioja, Misiones, Salta, and Tucuman (Vaccaro 1992, Barquez et al. 1999, López Berrizbeitia and Díaz 2013, Gamboa Alurralde et al. 2016).This species was recently reported by Pavé et al. (2017) from Santa Fe province, based on a specimen collected in the city of Santa Fe (La Capital department).Our specimen is, therefore, the second record for this province.
Molossops temminckii is found in South America (Gardner 2008), with records in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela (Díaz et al. 2016).In Argentina, it has been reported in Buenos Aires, Chaco, Chubut, Corrientes, Formosa, Misiones, Jujuy, Salta, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, and Tucuman.In Santa Fe, Pautasso (2008) cited the species, based on bibliography, from General Obligado and La Capital departments.We added Esperanza, Las Colonias department, which is a new locality for Santa Fe.
Bats have been intensively studied in Argentina in recent decades, but the majority of these studies were conducted in the northwest region of the country, mainly in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Catamarca, and La Rioja (Mares et al. 1989, 1995, 1996, Barquez and Ojeda 1992, Barquez et al. 1993, 1999, 2009, 2017, Barquez and Díaz 2001, 2009, Barquez 2006, López Berrizbeitia 2013, Díaz et al. 2016, Gamboa Alurralde et al. 2016, Urquizo et al. 2017).Knowledge on the diversity and distribution of the Santa Fe bat fauna has increased along the last century, but only due to reports based on occasional collections.This province still represents, therefore, an information gap in the distribution of many species, as highlighted by the new records assigned here.Additional systematic surveys will be important to fill this gap and help to provide a more accurate view of the bat diversity in Argentina

Figure 1 .
Figure 1. Adult male of Myotis nigricans (MFA-ZV-M: 1407) from Villa California, San José del Rincón, La Capital department, Santa Fe province, Argentina.A. Ventral and dorsal view.B. Lateral, dorsal, and ventral views of the skull and lateral view of the mandible.Scale bar = 5 mm.