Bats of Anguilla, Northern Lesser Antilles

Five species of bats are known in the literature from Anguilla—Monophyllus plethodon, Brachyphylla cavernarum, Artibeus jamaicensis, Natalus stramineus, and Molossus molossus. These records are scattered in the literature as parts of simple reports of the species from the island or included in revisions of taxonomic groups that occur on the island, but the first comprehensive study of bats of Anguilla is presented herein. In addition to providing morphometric and natural history information for the five species of bats previously known from the island, records of a species of bat new to the fauna of the island of Anguilla—Tadarida brasiliensis—are documented. Based on data from this study, the conclusion is drawn that the Anegada Passage has had only a limited impact as a zoogeographic barrier for the chiropteran faunas of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, if a perspective of the last 10,000 years is taken.