Range extension to Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas province and revised distribution of Platyrrhinus chocoensis ( Phyllostomidae : Chiroptera ) in western Ecuador

We report the first record of the Choco broad-nosed bat (Plathyrrhinus chocoensis Alberico & Velazco, 1991) in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas province in northwestern Ecuador. This voucher specimen represents the southernmost record of the species and expands its distribution ca. 120 km south. The animal was caught at a farm, specifically in a live fence consisting of several tree species. Preservation of bat species occurring in agricultural landscapes requires local policies and environmental education. Key-Words. Mammalia; Bats; Biogeography; New record; Ecuador.

This communication reports on the first record of Platyrrhinus chocoensis for the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, northwestern Ecuador and proposes a new geographical distribution for the species.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We collected bats using mist nets in an agricultural landscape in western Ecuador from September, 2012 to March, 2015.Most were identified in situ, but those that were difficult to identify were sacrificed following guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research (Sikes et al., 2011) and the specifications outlined in the Authorization of Scientific Research № 10-2013-IC-FAU-DPAP-MA granted by the Ministry of Environment of Ecuador.Voucher specimens were deposited at the Museo de Investigaciones Zoológicas del IASA, Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas (MIZI).We identified specimens at the genus level following Jones & Carter (1976), Albuja (1999) and Tirira (2007), and used Gardner (2007) and Velazco & Gardner (2009) for species identification.
For comparative purposes, we also examined 31 specimens of P. chocoensis deposited in the Museo Ecuatoriano de Ciencias Naturales (MECN), Museo de Zoología de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Quito (QCAZ), Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas de la Escuela Politécnica Nacional (MEPN), Museum of Texas Tech University (TTU), and Museo de Investigaciones Zoológicas (MIZI) (Appendix 1).Additionally, we measured 17 cranial variables following Velazco & Gardner (2009).We calculated descriptive statistics of cranial and postcranial measurements using InfoEstat® (Balzarini et al., 2013).We modeled the species habitat and potential distribution using Maximum Entropy Modeling (Maxent) (Phillips et al., 2006), and we calculated home range based on historical records of the species in Ecuador using Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP).Environmental variables were downloaded from www.worldclim.org(Hijmans et al., 2005) in format ESRI grind ca 1 km.To increase modeling accuracy, we performed 10 replicates, 500 interactions, and 10,000 background points.

RESULTS
On February 8, 2012, RAB and WEPR collected-in a life fence at San Antonio Farm (Ecuador) a bat specimen initially identified as Vampyrodes caracciolli based on the presence of two central, markedly convergent incisors (Pozo-Rivera, 2013).The specimen was deposited under museum number MIZI 2012397.However, during a recent curation of the mammal collection in MIZI, WEPR and KYA found errors with the identification of the voucher and reassigned it to Platyrrhinus chocoensis (Fig. 1) based on Gardner (2007) and Velazco & Gardner (2009).
The predictive model using Maxent, based on 31 specimens with accurate collection sites, is shown in Fig. 2; the area under curve (AUC) value of receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was 0.987.Based on these reports, the home range of the species, calculated by minimum convex polygon, reaches 14,904.7 km² (Fig. 2).Environmental variables which most influenced the distribution modeling were minimum temperature of coldest month (69%), and temperature annual range (8.1%).
The cranial and postcranial measurements of the specimen fell within the range of the Colombian (Velazco & Gardner, 2009) and Ecuadorian specimens (Table 1).Based on the P. chocoensis vouchers deposited in MECN, QCAZ, TTU, and on our record, we propose that the new species distribution extends to Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas province (Fig. 2).Furthermore, according to Burneo & Tirira (2014), it may extend to the Los Rios Province and may reach the lowland moist forests of the Los Guayas Province, considering the similar ecological characteristics of these forests.

DISCUSSION
Vertebrate and invertebrate distribution extension records are not uncommon across the Americas and are mainly based on studies of Natural Reserve Areas (Pereira, 2010;Gregory et al., 2015;Pachelle et al., 2015;Medina et al., 2016;Sikes & Allen, 2016).This is also the case in Ecuador, where most field studies on Chiroptera were conducted in areas belonging to the National System of Protected Areas (Baker et al., 2009;Loaiza-S, 2010;Moratelli & Wilson, 2011).This leaves agricultural areas, and agrosystems in general, open to scrutinized fieldwork with potentially interesting findings on bat distribution.In effect, absence of bat distributional data in areas affected by human activities may be mainly due to lack of monitoring effort, considering their floristic and climatic similarities to non-anthropogenically impacted areas.It is thus very likely to expect distribution extension records of bats in such areas, as with the present report.The Ecuadorian Rain Forests belonging to the Choco-Darien ecoregion were originally settled in the Esmeraldas, Manabí, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Los Rios, Western Pichincha and Eastern Guayas Provinces (CEPF, 2005), so a record of endemic Chocoan species was to be expected in any locality of these provinces.In fact, Burneo & Tirira (2014) predicted the potential southern extent in the distribution of P. chocoensis before the present report.
Ramirez-Chaves & Suarez-Castro (2015) report that P. chocoensis occurs in the lowlands of southern Panama and the Pacific region of Colombia, south to northwestern Ecuador.However, according to our observations on specimens deposited in museums made before this report, P. chocoensis in Ecuador occurred only in the Esmeraldas province.
Considering the ecological similarities across ecosystems (Drechsler et al., 2007), many mammals demonstrate very wide distribution ranges, such as the recent record of Coendu istichillus (Voss & da Silva, 2001) at 900 km away from the known boundaries of its previously recognized distribution area (Gregory et al., 2015).In fact, the scientific literature argues that the majority of range extension records are due to lack of monitoring effort (Rocha et al., 2013;Salas et al., 2013, Novaes et al., 2014).On the other hand, one should also consider that landscape and ecosystem anthropogenic modifications may further contribute to range extension.The present record of P. chocoensis was noted in an altered zone occupied by agricultural landscape, and this may indicate that some species are in the process of adapting to en- vironmental changes (Darwin, 1869;Hansen et al., 2001;Schmidt & Jensen, 2003).Northwestern Ecuadorian ecosystems have been greatly changed by agriculture (Maestri & Paterson, 2016).The finding of vulnerable species such as P. chocoensis in these areas places a great responsibility on conservationists and environmental scientists and educators.Joint actions are necessary to effectively conserve mammal species in agricultural landscapes.A special concern involves educating local stakeholders on the important ecological role of bats, especially the species directly linked to agricultural production, as landholders and farmworkers believe that bats are harmful, extracting blood from cattle or destroying fruit plantations.This results in an intentional and significant decline in bat populations around farms, rendering their protection and conservation in agrosystems a difficult but crucial task, requiring local policies to undertake appropriate bat conservation programs.
Several farms implement life fences, dispersed tree cover pastures, forest fragments, and riparian forest to promote wildlife conservation on agroecosystems (Vilchez-Mendoza et al., 2014).These ecological production alternatives do not guarantee the survival of the species on farms, however.Many bats are killed by smoke from fires set by landholders who are unaware of the ecological importance of bats for pest control, pollination, and seed dispersal.

CONCLUSIONS
The distribution of Platyrrhinus chocoensis extends to the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador.Furthermore, taking into account similarities between ecosystems, the species may also inhabit rain forests or agroecological farms of Los Rios Province up to the western rain forests of Los Guayas Province.Considering its Vulnerable status, developing conservation measures such as environmental education campaigns is crucial to raise awareness of the importance of bats for crops in agricultural areas to guarantee the continuality of this range.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Frontal (A) and lateral (B) views of a live specimen of Platyrrhinus chocoensis collected by WEPR and RAB in San Antonio Farm (voucher number MIZI2012397).

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Predictive habitat model using Maxent (AUC value = 0.987), based on 31 specimens with accurate collection sites (black circles) and the new record of Platyrrhinus chocoensis.The shadow under the predictive model corresponds to home range extension before our record.The star represents the new southernmost record reported in this communication.

Table 1 .
Comparative cranial and postcranial measurements of P. chochoensis from San Antonio farm in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Province (MIZI2012397), from published work by Velazco & Gardner (2009), and from specimens deposited in mammalian collections in Ecuador [mean ± SD, range (number of specimens)].Measurement acronyms are explained in Appendix 2.