Abstract

NOGUERA-URBANO, Elkin A.  and  MUNOZ-MONTENEGRO, Silvia. A karyotype of the silky short-tailed bat (Carollia brevicauda [Schinz, 1821], Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from the Colombian Andes. Therya [online]. 2014, vol.5, n.2, pp.559-566. ISSN 2007-3364.  https://doi.org/10.12933/therya-14-145.

Introduction: The only record of a Carollia brevicauda (Schinz, 1821) karyotype in Colombia to date was described from a single specimen collected from Leticia (department of Amazonas, Colombia). In this study, we offer a description of the karyotype of a female specimen of C. brevicauda, collected at 1,647 m in the locality of Chachagüi, in the Colombian Andes. Methodology: The karyotype was obtained from bone marrow and conventional staining with Giemsa. We describe the chromosomal number, fundamental number and the karyotypic pattern. We compared the karyotype with others proposed for the species and several closely related species. Results: This study increased the number of karyotypes reported for Colombian populations of C. brevicauda. The karyotype of C. brevicauda described in this paper agrees with karyotypes of other populations with 2n = 20 and FN = 36. The karyotypic pattern includes one sexual pair, two subtelocentrics pairs, two submetacentrics pairs and five metacentrics pairs. Discussion: The pattern recorded herein is different to other reported for the species and the genus. The descriptions of variations in chromosomal morphology in C. brevicauda are incomplete, but it is possible that the different karyotypic patterns are indicators of polymorphism within the genus. Other studies are necessary to describe the yet undescribed karyotypes of C. manu and C. monohernandezi and to obtain additional evidence for the phylogenetic reconstructions of Carollia.

Keywords : bat; chromosomes; genetics; genotype; mammal; variation.