ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF ANTILLEAN BATS

Abstract

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Analysis of the bat fauna of the Antillean Islands suggest that the most probable source of invasion of the islands by bats is by overwater dispersal. The bat fauna of the Greater Antilles is unique, a percentage of endemism on each island being over 50 percent- except for the Virgin Islands which has 33 percent endemics. The richest bat fauna in the Antilles is on Cuba (32 species) followed by lamaica (23 species) then Hispaniola (17 species) and Puerto Rico (16 species). The number of species found on Cuba is probably the result of the island's proximity to Central and North America and the ecological complexity of the island. Jamaica has a rich fauna because of its proximity to Central America and Cuba. The reduced fauna of Hispaniola (relative to Jamaica and Cuba) is probably because species have not reached this island with the frequency that they have reached Jamaica and Cuba (Hispaniola is as close to Cuba as is Jamaica). Puerto Rico (smaller than Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica) has even a more remote position relative to the mainland and the poorest fauna of the four largest islands. Mainland species that are found on Puerto Rico and Hispaniola are also found on Jamaica and Cuba. Only two Puerto Rican species (Brachyphylla cavernarum and a sub-Recent fossil, Monophyllus plethodon) have their primary distribution in the Lesser Antilles and both of these species have counterparts in the other Greater Antillean islands.