Lasiurus intermedius

Abstract

DIAGNOSIS. Yellow bats (Lasiurus intermedius, L. ega, and their relatives) differ from other species of Lasiurus as follows (Handley, 1959, 1960; Lowery, 1974): pelage yellowish rather than reddish or grayish; one upper premolar rather than two; only anterior half of dorsal surface of uropatagium furred rather than entire dorsal surface; sagittal crest pronounced rather than poorly developed; ears decidedly more pointed; white patches lacking on shoulders and wrists; rostrum relatively long; coronoid process high; and lateral wings of presternum wider than body of prester-num (rather than same width as body). Lasiurus intermedius (Fig. 1) differs from the smaller and sympatric L. ega primarily in size. According to Hall and Jones (1961), key characteristics that distinguish the former from the latter are: total length more than 119; condylocanine length more than 16.5; length of maxillary toothrow more than 6.0. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. The three subspecies of Lasiurus intermedius differ in size, ./loridanus being the smallest and insularis the largest. Selected average external (n = 14) and cranial (n = 10) measurements in mm (extremes in parentheses) for a series of male L. i. floridanus from Aucilla River, Jefferson Co., Florida (Hall and Jones, 1961) are : total length, 126.8 (121 to 131.5); length of tail vertebrae, 54.2 (51 to 60); length of hind foot, 9.8 (8 to 11); length of ear from notch, 16.3 (15 to 17); length of forearm (dry), 48.1 (46.7 to 50.0); condylocanine length, 17.6 (17.0 to 18.2); zygomatic breadth, 12.8 (12.6 to 13.0); least interorbital breadth, 5.0 (4.7 to 5.3); C-M3 alveolar length, 6.2 (6.0 to 6.4); breadth of rostrum at infraorbital canals, 7.2 (6.9 to 7.5); mastoid breadth, 10.0 (9.6 to 10.2); length of mandibular toothrow, 8.0 (7.8 to 8.2). The same measurements for three males of L. i.