Monophyllus redmani
Author(s): Jacqueline A. Homan and J. Knox Jones, Jr.
Source: Mammalian Species , Nov. 21, 1975, No. 57, Monophyllus redmani (Nov. 21, 1975),
pp. 1-3
Published by: American Society of Mammalogists
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MAMMA TAN SPECIES No. 57, pp. 1-3, 4 figs.
Monophyllus redmani. By Jacqueline A. Homan and J. Knox Jones, Jr.
Published 21 November 1975 by The American Society of Mammalogists
on the islands of the Greater Antilles. Of the two, redmani
Monophyllus Leach, 1821 exhibits considerably more infraspecific variation in size than
Monophyllus Leach, 1821:75. Type species, Monophyllus red-
does plethodon. The dental formula of the genus is i 2/2, c
mani Leach. 1/1, p 2/3, m 3/3, total 34. The skull and lower jaw ofM. redmani
are illustrated in Figure 2.
CONTEXT AND CONTENT. Order Chiroptera, Family
Phyllostomatidae, Subfamily Glossophaginae. The genus GENERAL CHARACTERS. According to Schwartz and
Monophyllus includes two Recent species, Monophyllus red-Jones (1967:4), M. redmani may be generally characterized by
mani and M. plethodon, a key to which follows: a combination of small to large overall size (for the genus),
Upper premolars separated by diastema half or more of length small hind foot and ear, relatively short forearm, and narrow
of first premolar, second premolar usually crowded postorbital area. Color of pelage is brownish, tending generally
against first molar; distribution restricted to Greater Antil- toward paler shades, to grayish.
les and southern Bahamas ................. M. redmani Marked variation in size is evident among subspecies of
the Greater Antillean long-tongued bat, from redmani (largest)
Upper premolars separated by small diastema less than half of
through clinedaphus to portoricensis (smallest). Ranges in
length of first premolar, second premolar usually well sepa-
measurements (after Schwartz and Jones, 1967, and Buden,
rated from first molar; modern distribution restricted to Les-
1975) fdr individuals of the three races are, respectively: total
ser Antilles ............................. M. plethodon
length, 73 to 80, 58 to 73, 60 to 71 mm; length of tail, 8 to 11,
8 to 11, 7 to 10; length of hind foot, 11 to 14, 9 to 14, 10 to 13;
Monophyllus redmani Leach, 1821 length of ear, 13 to 14, 9 to 13, 10 to 12; length of forearm,
Greater Antillean Long-tongued Bat 37.6 to 41.0, 35.6 to 42.8, 34.8 to 38.5; greatest length of skull,
Monophyllus redmani Leach, 1821:76. Type locality Jamaica.22.6 to 23.9, 20.8 to 22.6, 19.0 to 20.4; condylobasal length,
20.5 to 22.6, 19.1 to 21.9, 17.4 to 18.9; zygomatic breadth, 9.1
Monophyllus portoricensis Miller, 1900:34. Type locality cave
near Bayamdn, Puerto Rico.
Monophyllus clinedaphus Miller, 1900:36. Type locality undes-
ignated; restricted to vicinity Baracoa, Oriente, Cuba, by
Schwartz and Jones (1967:6).
Monophyllus cubanus Miller, 1902:410. Type locality Baracoa,
Oriente, Cuba.
CONTEXT AND CONTENT. See generic summary
above. Three subspecies currently are recognized (Schwartz
and Jones, 1967):
M. r. redmani Leach, 1821:76, see above.
M. r. portoricensis Miller, 1900:34, see above.
M. r. clinedaphus Miller, 1900:34, see above (cubanus Miller, 1902,
andferreus Miller, 1918, are synonyms).
DIAGNOSIS. Bats of the genus Monophyllus are small to
medium in size among glossophagines; tail about half as long
as femur and projecting beyond border of uropatagium; zygomatic
arch complete; upper incisors small, those of the two pairs of es-
sentially equal size; lower incisors minute, the inner pair separated
by a noticeable gap at midline of lower jaw.
The two species of Monophyllus are closely related. M.
redmani differs from M. plethodon principally in having the
upper premolars separated by a diastema half or more the
length of the first premolar (see figure 1) and in occurring only
M1
FIGURE 2. Dorsal, ventral, and lateral views of skull, and lat-
FIGURE 1. Diagrammatic views of upper toothrows of eral view of lower jaw of Monophyllus redmani portoricensis,
Monophyllus redmani (upper) and M. plethodon showing male, TTU 9791, from El Yunke National Forest, Puerto Rico.
Scale at lower right represents 5 mm. Illustration by J. A.
difference in size of diastema between premolars and between
last premolar and first molar. Illustration by J. A. Homan. Homan.
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2 MAMMALIAN SPECIES NO. 57
84 72
24
18-
__~. I..'
---,,/<~ --
car r>
-
FIGURE 4. Karyotype of male Monophyllus redmani from
Puerto Rico (after
FIGURE 3. Distribution inBaker and Lopez, 1970).
Antillean regio
Monophyllus redmani: 1, M. r. redmani; 2,
3, M. r. portoricensis.
finding M. redmani in a damp cave east of Baracoa, Cuba,
which was occupied also by Natalus micropus, Mormoops
to 10.4, 8.6 to 9.8, 7.9 to
blainvillii, 8.8;
Pteronotus postorbital
parellii, Pteronotus macleayii, and co
4.6, 3.8 to 4.6, 3.8 to 4.2; poeyi.
Phyllonycteris mastoid
Haitian specimens of breadth,
redmani were taken
9.6, 8.0 to 8.8; length "in a of
large wetmaxillary toothrow
cave in a mesic situation in the Monts Car-
8.3, 6.5 to 7.3. Buden (1975)
taches reported
massif" (Schwartz on var
and Jones, 1967:10). Anthony
populations. He noted that
(1925:32) noted large specimens
numbers of this species in Cuevafrom
de Tru-
were nearly as large jilloas individuals
Alto, Puerto ofhanging
Rico, ".. . clustered in masses, redm in
and possibly represent anor unnamed
deep crevices, 'chimneys' in the ceiling of subspec
the cave and
DISTRIBUTION. Monophyllus redmani is known to generally ... segregated by sexes." Eighty of 83 specimens
taken there in mid-July were males. Individuals knocked into
occur (figure 3) only on Cuba, Hispaniola, and the southern
Bahamas (clinedaphus), Jamaica (redmtani), and Puerto Rico a stream at the bottom of this cave swam readily to the edge
(portoricensis). and crawled out. Anthony (1919:637) also recorded a specimen
taken "in a cave among the hills" in eastern Cuba.
FOSSIL RECORD. Monophyllus redmani has been re- Buden (1975) found large numbers of bats, including M.
ported from late Pleistocene or Holocene cave deposits from redmani, in a well-aerated cave about 50 m deep, 15 to 20 m
wide, and about 6 m high near Cripple Hill on Crooked Island
each of the Greater Antillean islands (see especially, Anthony,
1925; Choate and Birney, 1968; Koopman, 1955; Koopman and in the Bahamas. The cave had at least two large entrances
Ruibal, 1955; Koopman and Williams, 1951; Miller, 1929; Silvaand most bats, including all redmani he observed, frequented
Taboada, 1974; Williams, 1952). solution cavities in the roof in one of the darker parts. The
solution cavities ranged up to several m in depth and averaged
FORM AND FUNCTION. Little is known of form and less than 1 m in width. Individuals of M. redmani were found
function in M. redmani. Silva Taboada (1974) reportedalone or in groups of up to 15 to 20 in these depressions.
sexual
dimorphism in Cuban populations as follows: "In females the
Buden reported these bats to be extremely wary, taking flight
premaxilla tends to be narrow and projects forward, when whereas
disturbed by the beam of a flashlight. The only M. red-
in males this region is broader and more rounded anteriorly. mani netted by Buden in the Bahamas was taken in semixeric
As a consequence, females average larger in length of skull,
woods on North Caicos.
and smaller in alveolar width across canines, than males. Monophyllus is easily taken in mist nets, and M. redman
Moreover, in females the mandible is conspicuously slender has been netted in various forested situations in recent yea
and almost straight, whereas in males it is much broader, with Tamsitt and Valdivieso (1970:E124), for example, took th
a convex lower profile." species along with Stenoderma rufum in a net stretched acros
Valdivieso et al. (1969) discussed electrophoretic proper- a clearing at the edge of a forest trail in Puerto Rico. They a
ties of the hemoglobin of redmani and other bats from Puerto tempted to keep M. redmani alive in the laboratory but we
Rico. A pattern consisting of a single, rapid, anodal band was unsuccessful. The bats refused whole and mashed banana
found in redmani. However, the hemoglobin morphs of and sugared water, and died within two days. McNab (1971
Monophyllus, Erophylla, Artibeus, and Stenoderma were indis- Phillips (1971), Radovsky et al. (1971) and other authors ha
tinguishable, a fact that Valdivieso et al. judged to reinforce indicated that Monophyllus feeds on soft fruit or nectar, a
the view "that these taxa represent natural assemblages ofpossibly also insects, but there are no firm data on food
closely related genera and species." See also Tamsitt and habits.
Valdivieso (1969: table 2). Later, Valdivieso and Tamsitt (1974) Silva Taboada (1974) reported a sex ratio of 55 males to 53
compared serum proteins of some Neotropical bats and foundfemales in a random sample collected over two years from a
those of the single redmani available to them to be similar tocave in central Cuba. Using the secondary sexual characters
the proteins of a wide variety of other phyllostomatids and of listed in Form and Function above, he identified 46 males and
certain bats of other families as well. 37 females from fossil deposits in the same area.
Phillips (1971) described the dentition of Monophyllus in Radovsky et al. (1971) described a macronyssid mite,
some detail. He noted that upper teeth in redmani are rarely Radfordiella monophylli, from M. redmani on the basis of pro-
lost in life, but that lower incisors are frequently lost (first tonymphs found imbedded in the soft palate. Other ectopara-
lower incisors in 21.4% of males examined and 15.4% of sites recorded from this species include the mites Jamesonia
females, for example). Macronyssid mites infesting the rosickyi
oral and Spelaeorhynchus monophylii, and the bat fly
mucosa of M. redmani caused the loss of an upper premolar Trichobius truncatus (Dusbabek, 1969; Tamsitt and Fox, 1970;
in one of 75 specimens examined by Phillips. Tamsitt and Valdivieso, 1970). In a study of trematodes of
Cuban bats, Groschaft and del Valle (1969) found none in five
REPRODUCTION. Buden's (1975) report of pregnant specimens of M. r. clinedaphus examined.
females, each with a single fetus, from one Bahaman island
and two in the Greater Antilles is the only information avail- GENETICS. Monophyllus redmani has a diploid
able on reproduction. A female from Middle Caicos, taken on
chromosomal complement of 32 and a fundamental number of
28 January, carried a fetus that was 20 mm in crown-rump 60. Austosomes are metacentric or submetacentric; the X
length. Three from Hispaniola, two collected on 3 December chromosome is submetacentric and the Y is a minute element
and the other on 24 February, had fetuses 16, 18, and (see 19 mmfigure 4). Baker and Lopez (1970:467) regarded
in length, respectively. One from Puerto Rico was gravid Monophyllus
on 5 as similar to Erophylla and Brachyphylla, but
February. most closely related to Glossophaga, on the basis of
chromosomal morphology.
ECOLOGY. M. redmani evidently roosts principally in
caves. Near Windsor, Jamaica, specimens were taken well REMARKS. Monophyllus redmani closely resembles M.
back from the entrance in a moist cave where bats were ob-
plethodon morphologically, the dental characters used in the
served clinging to, and flying just below, the high ceiling
foregoing key being the only consistent means by which the
(Jones and Schwartz, 1967:6). Miller (1904:344) reported two can be separated. The occurrence of both species in the
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MAMMALIAN SPECIES NO. 57 3
- 1902.1917,
same layers in cave deposits on Puerto Rico (Anthony, Twenty new American bats. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.
Philadelphia 54:389-412.
1925; Choate and Birney, 1968), however, argues for recogni-
- [Link] on the bats collected by William Palmer in
tion of two species rather than regarding Monophyllus
monotypic. Cuba. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 27:337-348.
Throughout most of the Antillean region, Monophyllus is - 1914. Three new bats from Haiti and Santo Domingo.
the only glossophagine bat. However, species of another Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 31:39-40.
genus, Glossophaga, are known to occur on Jamaica and in - 1929. A second collection of mammals from caves near St.
the Lesser Antilles as far north as Dominica and may be Michel, Haiti. Smithsonian Misc. Coll. 81(9):1-30, 10 pl
highly competitive with Monophyllus where both occur Phillips, C. J. 1971. The dentition of glossophagine bats: de
together. Varona (1974) recently placed Monophyllus as a sub- velopment, morphological characteristics, variation,
genus of Glossophaga, but we have not followed his arrange- pathology, and evolution. Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist.,
ment. Univ. Kansas 54:1-138.
LITERATURE CITED Radovsky, F. J., J. K. Jones, Jr., and C. J. Phillips. 1971.
Three new species of Radfordiella (Acarina: Macronys-
Anthony, H. E. 1917. Two new fossil bats from Porto Rico.
sidae) parasitic in the mouth of phyllostomatid bats. Jour.
Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 37:565-568, 1 pl. Med. Ent. 8:737-746.
- 1919. Mammals collected in eastern Cuba in 1917, with de-
Schwartz, A., and J. K. Jones, Jr. 1967. Review of bats of
scriptions of two new species. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. endemic Antillean genus Monophyllus. Proc. U.S. Na
Hist. 41:625-643, 2 pls.
Mus. 124(3635): 1-20.
- 1925. Mammals of Porto Rico, living and extinct. Sci.
Silva Taboada, G. 1974. Fossil Chiroptera from cave depo
Surv. Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. New York Acad.
in central Cuba, with description of two new species
Sci. 9:1-241, 54 pls.
(genera Pteronotus and Mormoops) and the first West In-
Baker, R. J., and G. Lopez. 1970. Karyotypic studies of the
dian record of Mormoops megalophylla. Acta Zool.
insular populations of bats on Puerto Rico. Caryologia
23:465-472.
Cracoviensia 19:33-73, pls. 2-4.
Tamsitt, J. R., and I. Fox. 1970. Records of bat ectoparasites
Buden, D. W. 1975. First records of Monophyllus redmani
from the Caribbean region (Siphonaptera, Acarina, Dip-
Leach (Chiroptera) from the Bahamas with notes on vari-
tera). Canadian Jour. Zool. 48:1093-1097.
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Tamsitt, J. R., and D. Valdivieso. 1969. Hemoglobin elec-
Choate, J. R., and E. C. Birney. 1968. Sub-recent Insectivora
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Dusbdbek, F. 1969. Generic revision of the myobiid mites -1970. Observations on bats and their ectoparasites. Pp.
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16:1-17. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C., xiv + 1640
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Groschaft, J., and M. R. del Valle. 1969. Trematodos de los
murcielagos de Cuba. Torreia 18(n.s.):1-20. Valdivieso, D., and J. R. Tamsitt. 1974. Electrophoretic pat-
Koopman, K. F. 1955. A new subspecies of Chilonycteris from terns of serum proteins of Neotropical bats (Chiroptera).
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Principal editor for this account was S. ANDERSON.
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