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New records and a taxonomic review prompts reassessment of Lonchophylla bokermanni, a rare bat endemic to the Brazilian Cerrado

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Tiago Souto Martins Teixeira Open the ORCID record for Tiago Souto Martins Teixeira [Opens in a new window] ,
Daniela Dias  and
Mariana M. Vale
Tiago Souto Martins Teixeira
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecologia, Laboratório de Vertebrados, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Av. Brigadeiro Trompowski, s/n, Cidade Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Caixa Postal 68020, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-599, Brazil.
Daniela Dias
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Biologia e Parasitologia de Mamíferos Silvestres Reservatórios, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mariana M. Vale*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecologia, Laboratório de Vertebrados, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Av. Brigadeiro Trompowski, s/n, Cidade Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Caixa Postal 68020, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-599, Brazil.
*
(Corresponding author) E-mail mvale.eco@gmail.com
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Abstract

Lonchophylla bokermanni is a nectar-feeding bat endemic to south-east Brazil that is currently categorized as Vulnerable in Brazil but as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List. Originally described in the Cerrado savannah of Minas Gerais state in 1978, the species is known to occur in only two other nearby localities. In the last 2 decades individuals identified as L. bokermanni were recorded in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, increasing the known range of the species. A recent taxonomic review, however, has shown that Atlantic Forest individuals belong to a separate, new species, Lonchophylla peracchii. L. bokermanni, therefore, is known from only three localities, with an Extent of Occurrence of 1,506 km2. Because this EOO is < 5,000 km2, the species is known from <5 localities, and there is a presumed continued decline in its habitat extent and quality, it should be categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. We recommend that the state of the three known populations of L. bokermanni be evaluated, and that surveys for further populations are required, particularly in Serra do Cipó National Park.

Keywords

BrazilCerradoChiropteraconservation statusIUCNNeotropics
Type
Short Communication
Information
Oryx , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 71 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna & Flora International 2014 

Lonchophylla bokermanni Sazima, Vizotto & Tadei Reference Sazima, Vizotto and Taddei1978 is a medium-sized nectar-feeding bat endemic to south-east Brazil (Sazima et al., Reference Sazima, Vizotto and Taddei1978; Nogueira et al., Reference Nogueira, Dias, Peracchi, Reis, Peracchi and Pedro2007; Chiarello et al., Reference Chiarello, Aguiar, Cerqueira, Melo, Rodrigues, Silva, Machado, Drummond and Paglia2008). It is categorized as Vulnerable on Brazilian Red Lists because of its restricted distribution and small populations, and the reduction of its habitat (Brazil, 2003; Machado et al., Reference Machado, Martins and Drummond2005; Bergallo et al., Reference Bergallo, Esbérard, Geise, Grelle, Vieira, Gonçalves, Bergallo, Fidalgo, Rocha, Uzêda, Costa and Alves2009), but as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List because ‘not enough information is available to assess the species distribution, which may be widespread or restricted’ (Sampaio et al., Reference Sampaio, Lim and Peters2008).

The species’ type locality, Jaboticatubas, in the Serra do Cipó mountains in the state of Minas Gerais (Sazima et al., Reference Sazima, Vizotto and Taddei1978), is in the Cerrado (Fig. 1), and a few additional specimens were taken near the type locality 9 years after the species was discovered (Sazima et al., Reference Sazima, Vogel and Sazima1989). For 10 years these were the only records of L. bokermanni, prompting concern regarding its status. Individuals identified as L. bokermanni were later recorded on the coast of Brazil in a few well-preserved localities in the Atlantic Forest of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and São Paulo states, expanding the species’ known range (Taddei et al., Reference Taddei, de Souza and Manuzzi1988; Dias et al., Reference Dias, Peracchi and Silva2002; Brito et al., Reference Brito, Oliveira and Mello2004; Esbérard et al., Reference Esbérard, Jordão-Nogueira, Luz, Melo, Mangolin and Juçá2006, Reference Esbérard, Baptista, Costa, Luz and Lourenço2010; Moratelli & Peracchi, Reference Moratelli, Peracchi, Cronemberger and Viveiros de Castro2007; Dias & Peracchi, Reference Dias and Peracchi2008; Esbérard, Reference Esbérard2009; Bolzan et al., Reference Bolzan, Lourenço, Costa, Luz, Jordão-Nogueira and Dias2010; Novaes et al., Reference Novaes, Mello, Felix, Silvares, Sant'Anna and Façanha2010; Pimenta et al., Reference Pimenta, Machel, Fonseca and Ditchfield2010; Teixeira et al., Reference Teixeira, Rosa, Dias, Cerqueira and Vale2013). There were a number of misclassifications of L. bokermanni specimens as Lonchophylla mordax Thomas 1903 in Rio de Janeiro (Dias et al., Reference Dias, Peracchi and Silva2002; Esbérard, Reference Esbérard2003; Esbérard et al., Reference Esbérard, Jordão-Nogueira, Luz, Melo, Mangolin and Juçá2006) because of the lack of a taxonomic review of the known Brazilian forms of the genus, and the overlap of the forearm length of L. mordax and L. bokermanni specimens from the Atlantic Forest (Taddei et al., Reference Taddei, de Souza and Manuzzi1988; Dias et al., Reference Dias, Peracchi and Silva2002; Dias & Peracchi, Reference Dias and Peracchi2008; Pimenta et al., Reference Pimenta, Machel, Fonseca and Ditchfield2010). A recent review of L. bokermanni specimens (Dias et al., Reference Dias, Esbérard and Moratelli2013), however, found sufficient differences between Cerrado and Atlantic Forest populations to warrant the treatment of the latter as a separate and new species, Lonchophylla peracchii Dias, Esbérard & Moratelli, Reference Dias, Esbérard and Moratelli2013. At the same time, L. bokermanni was rediscovered in Minas Gerais, near its type locality, in Itambé do Mato Dentro (Nascimento et al., Reference Nascimento, Dias, Gregorin and Lessa2013) and the Diamantina region (Dias et al., Reference Dias, Esbérard and Moratelli2013; Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Distribution of Lonchophylla bokermanni and Lonchophylla peracchii in south-east Brazil, with the original extent of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest (from Olson et al., Reference Olson, Dinerstein, Wikramanayake, Burgess, Powell and Underwood2001). The dashed triangle shows the Extent of Occurrence (EOO) of L. bokermanni (see text for details), with an area of 1,506 km2, encompassing the three known records, at Jaboticatubas, Itambé do Mato Dentro and Diamantina.

Lonchophylla bokermanni, therefore, is known from only three localities in Minas Gerais state. These localities can be used to determine the species’ Extent of Occurrence (EOO), which can be calculated as the minimum convex polygon defined by the species’ occurrence records (IUCN, 2001; Gaston, Reference Gaston2003). The EOO of L. bokermanni is 1,506 km2, less than the 5,000-km2 threshold for categorization as Endangered (Fig. 1), the species is known from < 5 locations, and there is a presumed decline in the extent and quality of its habitat. The Cerrado is a biodiversity hotspot but it has lost > 80% of its original vegetation cover, mostly to the continuing expansion of Brazil's agriculture frontier (Myers et al., Reference Myers, Mittermeier, Mittermeier, da Fonseca and Kent1999; Klink & Machado, Reference Klink and Machado2005). Thus, the species should be categorized as Endangered based on criteria B1abiii (IUCN, 2001), rather than Data Deficient, on the IUCN Red List. The categorization of the species as Vulnerable on the Brazilian Red Lists (Machado et al., Reference Machado, Martins and Drummond2005) should also be reconsidered.

Information on the ecology of L. bokermanni is limited to notes on its feeding (Sazima et al., Reference Sazima, Vizotto and Taddei1978, Reference Sazima, Vogel and Sazima1989). There have been no studies of why the species seems to be so rare, or of the threats it faces. There is, therefore, an urgent need to study this species, identifying the factors that are responsible for its current status. The records of L. bokermanni are within 50 km of Belo Horizonte (Fig. 1), the capital city of Minas Gerais, with a population of 2.5 million people, but are also close to Serra do Cipó National Park (Fig. 1), which protects 33,800 ha of relatively well-preserved Cerrado vegetation. We recommend that the state of the three known populations of L. bokermanni be evaluated, and that targeted surveys are carried out for further populations, particularly in Serra do Cipó National Park.

Acknowledgements

While writing this article the authors were supported by grants or fellowships from PROBIO II/MCTI/JBRJ/MMA/GEF, PPBIO/MCT, and Rede Clima/MCT. We thank Dr Clinton Jenkins for reviewing the English.

Biographical sketches

Tiago Teixeira's main research interests are the ecology and distribution of bats, and climate modelling, biodiversity inventory and conservation. Daniela Dias's main research interests are the taxonomy, systematics and biogeography of Neotropical bats, with an emphasis on the Brazilian species of Lonchophylla. Mariana Vale's main research interests are the prioritization of areas and species for conservation in the Neotropics, both currently and under climate change scenarios, using spatial analysis as a tool.

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Fig. 1 Distribution of Lonchophyllabokermanni and Lonchophylla peracchii in south-east Brazil, with the original extent of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest (from Olson et al., 2001). The dashed triangle shows the Extent of Occurrence (EOO) of L. bokermanni (see text for details), with an area of 1,506 km2, encompassing the three known records, at Jaboticatubas, Itambé do Mato Dentro and Diamantina.