Desmodus rotundus (É. Geoffroy, 1810)

Fig. 7

Taxonomy.

Desmodus rotundus is the only species in Desmodus Wied-Newied, 1826. Desmodontinae also includes other two species, Diaemus youngii (Jentink, 1893) and Diphylla ecaudata Spix, 1823 (Kwon and Gardner 2008), all occurring in Brazil. Desmodus rotundus can be distinguished from the other two by the presence of an elongated thumb with two rounded basal pads (D. youngii also presents an elongated thumb, but only one pad, while D. ecaudata presents a small thumb without pads). Desmodus rotundus also differs from D. youngii by the presence of a tiny calcar, which is absent in D. youngii (Kwon and Gardner 2008, López-Baucells et al. 2016). Specimens from PECB (ZSP 006, 031; see Table 3 for measurements) have dark brown dorsal fur, with whitish basis and dark brown tips, ventral fur bicolored, with a gray basis and whitish / silver tips, elongated thumb with two basal pads.

Distribution.

In Brazil the species is recorded in all biomes and states (Tavares et al. 2008, Reis et al. 2017). In São Paulo, the species is widely distributed, occurring in all the vegetational formations, and also in urban areas (Garbino 2016).

Field observations.

We captured 18 individuals (5 males and 13 females) of D. rotundus, of which 16 were taken in February, March, April, June, July, August and October in ground-level mist-nets in sampling sites M 2, M 14, M 16, M 18, M 19, M 23, M 24, M 25, M 29, M 34, M 36 and M 39, in different elevations and plant physiognomies; and two on June in a mist-net elevated 8 m in sampling site M 33 (Appendix 1). Two lactating females were captured in June.