A new species of Eumops (Chiroptera: Molossidae) from southwestern Peru

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) The genus Eumops is the most diverse genera of molossid bats in the Neotropics. In Peru this genus is widely distributed and represented by nine species: E. auripendulus, E. delticus, E. hansae, E. maurus, E. nanus, E. patagonicus, E. perotis, E. trumbulli, and E. wilsoni. After several years of mammalian diversity surveys in the coastal desert and western slopes of southwestern Peru, a specimen of Eumops was collected whose unique set of traits allows us to assert that deserves to be described as a new species. Based on molecular and morphological evidence, the new species is related to mediumlarge sized species (i.e. E. glaucinus, E. auripendulus, and E. perotis). Cytochrome b genetic divergence between the new species and the other species of the genus was high (> 12%) and it is consistent with morphological divergence presented for this new species. This new species, endemic to Peru, increases the diversity of Eumops to 16 species.