Mexican dog-faced bat
The Mexican dog-faced bat is a bat species of the family Molossidae from Central America. It is found from Nayarit in Mexico to Costa Rica at elevations up to 1500 m. It was formerly considered a subspecies of C. greenhalli. It roosts in deciduous and evergreen forest, and is usually found near small bodies of water.
Taxonomy and etymology
It was described as a subspecies of Greenhall's dog-faced bat in 1967 by Jones and Genoways.At the time, Greenhall's dog-faced bat was in the genus Molossops, so the Mexican dog-faced bat initially had the trinomen Molossops greenhalli mexicanus.
When Cynomops was recognized as a valid genus rather than a subgenus of Molossops, Greenhall's dog-faced bat became part of the new genus.
However, it wasn't until 2002 that the Mexican dog-faced bat was promoted to full species status. It is the most basal member of Cynomops.
Its species name "mexicanus" is Latin meaning "from Mexico."