Images attached to GBIF records (field photographs), from . Open licences; click for the record.
Thomas's Fruit-eating Bat
Artibeus watsoni Thomas, 1901
Also calledDermanure de Watson (fra) · Thomas-Fruchtvampir (deu)
First described in: Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7 vol.7 p.542
Thomas's fruit-eating bat (Dermanura watsoni), sometimes also popularly called Watson's fruit-eating bat, is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found from southern Mexico, through Central America to Colombia. Its South American range is to the west of the Andes. The species name is in honor of H. J. Watson, a plantation owner in western Panama who used to send specimens to the British Natural History Museum, where Oldfield Thomas would often describe them.
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
conservation
Conservation: IUCN 2003 – Not listed (lapsus); IUCN / SSC Action Plan (2001) – Lower Risk (lc).
Order Chiroptera - Family Phyllostomidae
discussion
Discussion: Subgenus Dermanura. Distinct from glaucus; see Handley (1987). See also Kalko and Handley (1994).
Order Chiroptera - Family Phyllostomidae
activity
Activity patterns. Thomas’s Fruit-eating Bats is nocturnal. It seems to be active at the first hour after sunset and again in early morning hours. It appears to be an obligate tent-maker because it has not been found roosting in other situations. For tents, it modifies leaves of Heliconia (Heliconiaceae), banana (Musaceae), bifid and palmate palm (Anthurium, Araceae), and species of Cyclanthaceae. Leaves are cut in a variety of styles, depending on shape and size. Individuals (usually males) occupying a tent roost make distinctive multiharmonic social call. These calls could help females find available roosts, or indicate presence of a male in the tent to other males.
Phyllostomidae
biology_ecology
Habitat. Common to abundant in semideciduous and evergreen lowlands forests, second growth, and fruit groves and also upland and swamp forests on islands from lowlands to elevations of ¢. 1500 m (usually below 800 m). Thomas’s Fruit-eating Bat favors taller and more humid forests than the Pygmy Fruit-eating Bat (A. phaeotis).
Phyllostomidae
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Artibeus watsoni in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 4265337.