Tadarida femorosacca (Merriam) in Tamaulipas, Mexico

Excerpt

On January 23, 1946, two pocketed free-tailed bats (Tadarida femorosacca, Catalogue nos. 17852 and 17853) were obtained in a large cave 10 kilometers north-northeast of the village of Antiguo Morelos, in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. This extends the known range of this species to the Atlantic Slope and more than 300 miles to the northeast of Zacoalco, Jalisco, the only locality in central Mexico from which the species was previously known (see Shamel, H. H., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 78, art. 19, p. 13, 1931). The total length of the skull (18 mm.) and the basal length (15.0, 15.2) are less than recorded by Shamel (op. cit.) for any one of the eight specimens studied by him. Otherwise our two specimens answer the description of femorosacca. They were found lying on the floor of the cave. One was dead and the other alive but incapable of flight. Shooting into the cracks of the roof of the cave more than a hundred feet high failed to dislodge other bats but stimulated a volume of squeaking of bats which indicated that thousands of individuals, possibly of this species, were ensconsed there. The cave had long been used by bats as attested by the large deposit of guano, much of which had been removed for fertilizer.

    Transmitted October 20, 1947....