North American Yellow Bats, "Dasypterus," and a List of the Named Kinds Of the Genus Lasiurus Gray by Eugene Raymond Hall

TITULO LARGO

INTRODUCTION

Yellow bats occur only in the New World and by most recent authors have been referred to the genus _Dasypterus_ Peters. The red bats and the hoary bat, all belonging to the genus _Lasiurus_ Gray, also occur only in the New World except that the hoary bat has an endemic subspecies in the Hawaiian Islands.

The kind of yellow bat first to be given a distinctive name was the smaller of the two species that occur in North America. It was named _Nycticejus ega_ in 1856 (p. 73) by Gervais on the basis of material from the state of Amazonas, Brazil, South America, but was early recognized as occurring also in North America (in the sense that Mexico and Central America, including Panama, are parts of North America). More than 40 years elapsed before subspecific names were proposed for the North American populations; Thomas named _Dasypterus ega xanthinus_ in 1897 (p. 544) from Baja California, and _Dasypterus ega panamensis_ in 1901 (p. 246) from Panama.

The larger of the two North American species was named _Lasiurus intermedius_ in 1862 (p. 246) by H. Allen on the basis of material from extreme northeastern Mexico. Another alleged species, _Dasypterus floridanus_, was named in 1902 (p. 392) by Miller from Florida, but as set forth below it is only a subspecies of _L. intermedius_, a species that is seemingly limited to parts of the North American mainland and Cuba.

A third species, _Atalapha egregia_, allegedly allied to the small yellow bat, _L. ega_, was named in 1871 (p. 912) by Peters from Santa Catarina, Brazil, but Handley (1960: 473) thinks that _L. egregius_ is allied instead to the red bats. The species _L. egregius_ has not been studied in connection with the observations reported below.

Bats of the genus concerned were given the generic name _Nycteris_ by Borkhausen in 1797 (p. 66), and the name _Lasiurus_ by Gray in 1831 (p. 38). For much of the latter part of the 19th century the generic name _Atalapha_ proposed by Rafinesque in 1814 (p. 12) was used because it antedated the name _Lasiurus_. In this period Harrison Allen (1894: 137) raised to generic rank the name _Dasypterus_ that had been proposed by Peters in 1871 (p. 912) only as a subgenus for the yellow bats. Since 1894 the yellow bats ordinarily have borne the generic name _Dasypterus_. The red bats and the hoary bat continued to be referred to as of the genus _Atalapha_ until early in the 20th century when it was decided that a European bat of another genus was technically the basis for the name _Atalapha_. Thereupon _Lasiurus_ was again used in the belief that it was the earliest available name for the bats concerned.

But in 1909 (p. 90) Miller showed that the name _Lasiurus_ was preoccupied by _Nycteris_ Borkhausen, 1797 (p. 66). From 1909 until 1914 in conformance with the Law of Priority _Nycteris_ was used for the red bat and the hoary bat.

At this point it is desirable to digress and indicate why and how the Law of Priority came into being. In the 19th century different technical names were used for the same kind of animal depending on the opinions of individual authors. For example, one author used name A because it was most descriptive of the morphology of the animal, another author used name B because it had been used more often than any other, another author used name C because it was more euphonious, etc. In order to achieve uniformity and stability a set of rules was drawn up in 1901 at the International Zoological Congress in Berlin. Those rules were based principally on the rule, or law, of priority. In effect, the law stated that the technical name first given to a kind of animal (with starting date as of January 1, 1758, _Systema Naturae_ of Linnaeus) would be the correct and official name.

After the mentioned rules were adopted, some zoologists, mostly non-taxonomists, objected to the rules and in response to these objections a compromise was adopted in 1913 at the International Zoological Congress in Monaco and the International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature was authorized to set aside, at its discretion, the Law of Priority. In 1913 it was thought by everyone that the names conserved (_nomina conservanda_) by setting aside the rules would be few.

Returning now to the generic names applied to the bats concerned, it is to be noted that from 1803 until 1909 _Nycteris_ had been used as the generic name of an African bat on the erroneous assumption that the name was first applied in a valid fashion to the African bat. With the aim of conserving the name _Nycteris_ for the African bat, some zoologists petitioned the International Committee on Zoological Nomenclature to set aside the Law of Priority and petitioned also that the name _Lasiurus_ be validated for use again as the generic name for New World bats. This petition was granted in 1914 in the first lot of names for which exception to the rules was made. As a result, since 1914 _Lasiurus_ has been used with increasing frequency, and _Nycteris_ with decreasing frequency, for New World bats.