_Specimens._--_Granada_: 6 km S Nandaime, 5. _Zelaya_: S side Rio
Mico, El Recreo, 25 m, 2.
This funnel-eared species occupies an extensive geographic range
(northern Mexico to Brazil) but appears to be relatively rare in Middle
America to the south of Guatemala. Our specimens represent the first of
this species to be reported from Nicaragua.
Both specimens from El Recreo, adult males, were caught by hand at
night after they flew through an open door into a small room, possibly
seeking insects that were swarming around a light bulb. Those from near
Nandaime (three males, two females) were caught in a mist net set over
the mouth of a well in which they were roosting; the well was
approximately 2 m in diameter, and the water level was about 5 m below
the rim. The females were not reproductively active (6 August).
We have compared our Nicaraguan material with a number of Mexican
specimens, including the holotype of _N. s. saturatus_ and topotypes of
_N. s. mexicanus_. We concur with Goodwin (1959) that in Mexico there
are two rather distinct subspecies, between which a broad zone of
intergradation obtains. Our Nicaraguan specimens agree most closely
with _N. s. saturatus_, and, until additional comparative material is
available from Middle America, we tentatively refer them to that race.
Handley (1966b:770) and Starrett and Casebeer (1968:15), however,
regarded _mexicanus_ as the appropriate name for specimens from Panama
and Costa Rica.
Selected measurements of two males from El Recreo are: length of
forearm, 41.2, 39.0 mm; greatest length of skull, 17.1, 16.5 mm;
zygomatic breadth, 8.4, 8.5 mm; mastoid breadth, 7.7, 7.6 mm; breadth
of braincase, 8.2, 8.1 mm; interorbital constriction, 3.2, 3.2 mm;
length of maxillary toothrow, 7.3, 7.1 mm.