Proceedings of the United States National Museum SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. Volume 112 1960 Number 3442 DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW BATS FROM PANAMA By Charles O. Handley, Jr. In its studies of tropical diseases, the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory of Panama is conducting a mammal surve3 r of the Republic. The work in 1959 centered on the headwaters of the Rio Pucro, near Cerro Tacarcuna, Province of Darien, eastern Panama. Among the mammals collected on the Rio Pucro were 43 species of bats, all caught in mist nets. Many of these species had not been taken previously in Central America. Three species and one sub-species herein described are new. Either there is a surprising amount of endemism in this region, which is continuous with the Choco of Colombia, or else there are a surprising number of undescribed wide-spread species of bats in the Neotropical fauna. The Malaria Control and Survey Branch of the Office of the Chief Surgeon, U.S. Army Caribbean, has also been collecting bats in Pan-ama. Included in its collections are several species not previously taken in the Republic and one of the new subspecies here described. I am indebted to the personnel of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, particularly Carl Johnson, Pedro Galindo, and Rudolpho Hinds for their support and cooperation. Likewise, I thank Robert Altman, Marvin Keenan, and Vernon Tipton of the Malaria Control and Survey Branch for their assistance and for the opportunity to study their collections. I am also grateful to the authorities of the American 459
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