Murciélagos (Chiroptera Blumenbach, 1779) de la isla La Española : Identificación, distribución espacial, variación morfométrica, diversidad genética y ecología trófica

Abstract

Hispaniola Island is the second largest island in the Greater Antilles and Insular Caribbean, with 22 mammalian species reported for the island, of which 20 are bats (constituting more than 90 % of the total). Despite the latter, Hispaniola in terms of bat species is the least studied island in the Neotropics. Research on Hispaniolan bats involve species descriptions from the late 1800s and early 1900s, publications on museum specimens’ collections mainly from the United States, and regional biogeographical, zoogeographical, and genetic analyses studies. Despite this, most studies include data on a single species and/or single location limiting the understanding of bat species ecology in the island at a local level. Due to the lack of research on the ecology of bats as a group, we saw the need to study bats, starting with the most basic questions that in other countries would be things of the past, such as the development and improvement of species identification keys, with a more detailed description of each species at a local level, allowing us to better identify the species. To this, we have added unpublished ecological information that includes refuge preference and details on trophic ecology per species, as well as their spatial and temporal distribution. After this, all the information from reports that has been generated about the island's bats to understand how they are distributed were compiled and pre-existing information on shelter and trophic habits were updated...