Short Notes 561 Notably range extension of Sturnira aratathomasi Peterson and Tamsitt 1969 in Perú VÍCTOR P ACHECO and PETER HOCKING Departamento de Mastozoología, Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, A.P. 14-0434, Lima-14, Perú; E-mail of VP: vpachecot@unmsm.edu.pe Key words: Sturnira aratathomasi, distribution, Perú, Apurímac, the Andes, dry forests INTRODUCTION The genus Sturnira is one of the most speciose genus of Neotropical bats. Cur- rently, no less than 15 species are recog- nized (Pacheco and Patterson, 1991, 1992; Koopman, 1993; Iudica, 2000; Sánchez- Hernández et al., 2005; Simmons, 2005). Among them, the Aratathomas’s yellow- shouldered bat Sturnira aratathomasi and the greater yellow-shouldered bat, Sturnira magna, are the two largest species of the genus; however, the former is one of the less known species in the genus. Most of the specimens of S. aratathomasi come from the Northern Andes, where as few as 18 specimens are known from Mérida state, Venezuela (Soriano and Molinari, 1984), the departments of Cauca, Caldas, Huila and Valle del Cauca, Colombia (Tamsitt et al., 1986; Soriano and Molinari, 1987; Al- berico 1987, Alberico et al., 2000; CastaZo et al., 2003), and from Ecuador (Peterson and Tamsitt, 1968). The presence of S. ara- tathomasi in Ecuador is based on two spec- imens collected from an unknown locality before 1874; since then, no other specimen has been recorded for that country (Albuja, 1999; Tirira, 1999). McCarthy et al. (1991) reported the first specimen of S. aratathomasi from Perú based on a juvenile male specimen (LSUMZ 21484) mist-netted on 29 August 1978, east of La Peca, at 3,165 m in the Cordillera Colán, Department of Amazonas. Later, the species was also reported from Río Abiseo, Department of San Martín (So- lari et al., 2001). The reported specimens of S. aratathomasi indicate it inhabits the premontane and montane life zone from 1,650 to 3,165 m a.s.l. (Soriano and Molina- ri, 1987; McCarthy et al., 1991; Alberico et al., 2000). Here, we provide information on the specimens from San Martín and report on three additional specimens from the Depart- ment of Apurímac, extending the southern range of the species more than 840 km. MATERIALS AND METHODS A distributional map of S. aratathomasi is pre- sented, with all records mapped using ArcView 3.2 on an altitude map developed by WorldClim, version 1.4 (Hijmans et al., 2004). Coordinates were taken from Tamsitt et al. (1986), Alberico (1987), Soriano and Molinari (1987), McCarthy et al. (1991), Paynter (1997), CastaZo et al. (2003), and Lehr et al. (2004). The report of Solari et al. (2001) was based on two specimens (MUSM 7305, 7306) captured at Las Palmas, ca. 32 km NE de Pataz, Department San Mar- tín, at 2,000 and 2,100 m a.s.l. (ca. 07°34’12.65’’S, 77°17’50.64’’W). The specimen MUSM 7305 was captured on 19 July 1990 in montane forest, and it is a male with testes 4 × 3 mm; whereas the specimen MUSM 7306, sex undetermined, was captured on 21 August 1990 at riverine vegetation, near the river. Other species captured at the lower montane forest of Las Palmas were: Anoura caudifer, A. geoffroyi, Ca- rollia brevicauda, Platyrrhinus ismaeli, P. nigellus, Sturnira bidens, and S. erythromos (Velazco, 2005; M. Romo, personal comm.). The lower montane for- est of Río Abiseo is characterized by the appearance of palms (Chamaesorea poeppigiana and Prestoea acuminata), cyclanths (Asplundia moritziana, and Sphaeradenia steyermarkii), other trees (e.g., Case- aria nigricolor, Cecropia sp., Cestrum spp., Clusia spp., Ficus spp., Oreopanax spp.), and by the absence of tree ferns and the bamboo Chusquea scandens (Young and León, 1988, 1991).