This large white-lined stenodermine was known previously from Nicaragua by a single specimen from an unknown locality (J. A. Allen, 1910:112). All of our specimens were caught in mist nets, which were set over streams at Santa Rosa and near Villa Somoza, and in a banana grove at El Recreo. Two pregnant females, captured on 11 and 13 July at Santa Rosa, each carried an embryo (4 and 27 mm in crown-rump length, respectively); one of two other adult females captured there on 9 August also had an embryo (35 mm in length) but the other evidently was reproductively quiescent. Testes of adult males varied in length from 3 to 10 mm on the following dates (testicular lengths in parentheses): 25 February (10 mm); 21 March (8, 8 mm); 17 June (3, 4 mm); 13 July (6 mm); 27-28 July (4, 4 mm); 3 August (4 mm); 5 August (3 mm); 9 August (4 mm).
We follow Starrett and Casebeer (1968:12) in the use of the specific name major, rather than caraccioli as suggested by Cabrera (1958), Goodwin and Greenhall (1961), and Handley (1966b).
Vampyressa nymphaea Thomas, 1909
A pregnant female (crown-rump length of embryo 5 mm) was captured in a mist net set in a small banana grove on the south side of the Río Mico, El Recreo, 25 m, in the Caribbean lowlands, on 27 February 1968. This specimen provides the first record of the big yellow-eared bat from Nicaragua. The species was recently reported for the first time from Costa Rica (Gardner et al., 1970:721); it was characterized as uncommon in Panamá by Handley (1966b:767). The one Costa Rican locality of record also is in the Caribbean versant.
Selected external and cranial measurements of our female are: total length, 58 mm; length of hind foot, 11 mm; length of ear, 16 mm; length of forearm, 36.2 mm; weight, 12.3 gms; greatest length of skull, 21.1 mm; condylobasal length, 18.4 mm; zygomatic breadth, 12.3 mm; mastoid breadth, 10.5 mm; breadth across canines, 4.6 mm; breadth of braincase, 9.4 mm; length of maxillary toothrow, 7.2 mm; length of mandibular c-m3, 7.8 mm.
Vampyressa pusilla thyone Thomas, 1909
Specimens.—Boaco: Santa Rosa, 17 km N, 15 km E Boaco, 300 m, 5. Chontales: 1 km N, 2.5 km W Villa Somoza, 330 m, 1. Managua: Hda. San José, 2. Matagalpa: 2 km N, 6 km E Esquipulas, 960 m, 2.
The only previous record of occurrence for the small yellow-eared bat from Nicaragua is based on an adult female from Hda. La Cumplida, 670 m, Matagalpa (Starrett and de la Torre, 1964:60).
Two individuals taken near Esquipulas in mid-March, a pregnant female (crown-rump length of embryo 16 mm) and a male (testes 4 mm), were captured in nets set across trails cut through secondary forest. The wind was quite strong in this area at the time of our visit and only a few other species of bats—Glossophaga soricina, Artibeus jamaicensis, A. toltecus, A. phaeotis, Uroderma bilobatum, Sturnira lilium, Centurio senex, and Diphylla ecaudata—were taken in the same nets. The specimens from Boaco and Chontales were captured over small streams bordered by gallery forest. Four females collected at Santa Rosa on 21 March were pregnant; each carried a single embryo that measured 5, 18, 21, and 30 mm in crown-rump length; a male taken on the same date had testes that measured 3 mm.
Selected external and cranial measurements of two males, followed by the average (extremes in parentheses) of six females are: length of forearm, 31.1, 30.8, 30.8 (30.0-31.4) mm; greatest length of skull, 18.9, 18.9, 18.5 (18.1-18.8) mm; zygomatic breadth, 11.0, 11.0, 10.6 (10.4-10.9) mm; mastoid breadth, 9.5, 9.2, 9.2 (9.0-9.3) mm; length of maxillary toothrow, 6.1, 5.9, 5.9 (5.7-6.1) mm.