Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Cladus: Synapsida
Cladus: Eupelycosauria
Cladus: Sphenacodontia
Cladus: Sphenacodontoidea
Cladus: Therapsida
Cladus: Theriodontia
Cladus: Cynodontia
Cladus: Eucynodontia
Cladus: Probainognathia
Cladus: Prozostrodontia
Cladus: Mammaliaformes
Classis: Mammalia
Subclassis: Trechnotheria
Infraclassis: Zatheria
Supercohors: Theria
Cohors: Eutheria
Infraclassis: Placentalia
Cladus: Boreoeutheria
Superordo: Laurasiatheria
Cladus: Scrotifera
Ordo: Chiroptera
Subordo: Yangochiroptera
Superfamilia: Vespertilionoidea
Familia: Molossidae
Subfamilia: Molossinae
Genus: Molossus
Species (16): M. alvarezi – M. aztecus – M. bondae – M. coibensis – M. currentium – M. fentoni – M. fluminensis – M. melini – M. milleri – M. molossus – M. nigricans – M. paranaensis – M. pretiosus – M. rufus – M. sinaloae – M. verrilli
Name
Molossus É. Geoffroy, 1805: 153
Type species: Vespertilio molossus Pallas, 1766, by subsequent designation.
Synonyms
Dysopes Illiger, 1811: 122
Type species: Vespertilio molossus Pallas, 1766, by monotypy.
Molossus molossus
References
Primary references
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, É. 1805. Sur quelques chauve-souris d'Amérique formant une petite famille sous le nom de molossus. Annales du Muséum d'histoire naturelle 6: 150–156. BHL Reference page.
Illiger, J.K.W. 1811. Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium additis terminis zoographicis utriusque classis, eorumque versione germanica. C. Salfield: Berolini. xviii + 302 pp. BHL Reference page.
Additional references
Loureiro, L.O., Lim, B.K. & Engstrom, M.D. 2018. A New Species of Mastiff Bat (Chiroptera, Molossidae, Molossus) from Guyana and Ecuador. Mammalian Biology 90: 10–21. DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2018.01.008 Paywall Reference page.
Montani, M.E., Tomasco, I.H., Barberis, I.M., Romano, M.C., Barquez, R.M. & Díaz, M.M. 2021. A new species of Molossus (Chiroptera: Molossidae) from Argentina. Journal of Mammalogy 102(5): 1426–1442. DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyab078 Paywall Reference page.
Chambi Velasquez, M.A., Pavé, R., Argoitia, M.A., Schierloh, P., Piccirilli, M.G., Colombo, V.C., Beltrán, F.J., Cisterna, D.M. & Caraballo, D.A. 2024. Revisiting Molossus (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Molossidae) diversity: Exploring southern limits and revealing a novel species in Argentina. Vertebrate Zoology 74: 397–416. DOI: 10.3897/vz.74.e122822 Open access Reference page.
Vernacular names
English: Mastiff Bats
日本語: ベルベットオヒキコウモリ属
Molossus is a genus of bats. The genus contains ten species with a New World distribution from Mexico in the north to northern Argentina at its most southerly limit. Four of these species have distributions that include various islands in the West Indies such as Puerto Rico or Trinidad.[1][2]
The genus belongs to a group commonly referred to as free-tailed bats. Its name is from the ancient Molossus breed of shepherd dog.[3]
Systematics
The following species are recognised:
Molossus alvarezi
Molossus aztecus Saussure, 1860[4]
Molossus coibensis Allen, 1904[4]
Molossus currentium Thomas, 1901[4]
Molossus molossus (Pallas, 1766)[4]
Molossus pretiosus Miller, 1902[4]
Molossus rufus E. Geoffroy, 1805[4]
Molossus sinaloae
References
"Molossus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
The Mammals of the Southern African Sub-region by J. D. Skinner, ISBN 0-521-84418-5, 2006, p. 277, "The name of the [free-tailed bats] family is derived from the Greek molossus, a kind of dog used by Greek shepherds in ancient times."
Louriero, Livia Oliviera; Gregorin, Renato; Perini, Fernando Araujo (2018). "Diversity, morphological phylogeny, and distribution of bats of the genus Molossus E. Geoffroy, 1805 (Chiroptera, Molossidae) in Brazil". Zoosystema. 40: 452–425. doi:10.5252/zoosystema2018v40a18. S2CID 92125667.
Bibliography
"Molossus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/"
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
