West Indian mammals from the Albert Schwartz Collection: Biological and historical information

Abstract

In the period 1954-1976, Albert Schwartz and several students working with him made extensive collections of mammals (ca. 2,000 specimens), reptiles and amphibians, birds, and butterflies in the West Indies. Schwartz's private collection of mammals from the West Indies is among the most comprehensive and important mammal collections from the region, yet much of it has never been reported in the scientific literature. Schwartz's original intent was to fully document all of the terrestrial mammals of the West Indies. In 1989, Schwartz transferred his mammal collection of some 6,500 specimens to the University of Kansas, and included in that collection were more than 1,400 specimens from the West Indies. It is our purpose herein to present a catalogue of the West Indian mammals assembled by Albert Schwartz, to offer critical comments on the taxonomic status of several species, as well as to report new biological information based on his specimens and field observations. The Albert Schwartz Collection represents a unique sample of West Indian mammals that includes new island records and significant series of poorly known species that contribute to systematic and zoogeographic studies of the region. Detailed measurements and ecological information are presented in accounts of the following species: one species of marsupial, one species of noctilionid bat, five species of mormoopids, 18 species of phyIlostomids, three species of natalids, three species of vespertilionids, five species of molossids, three species of capramyid rodents, two species of dasypractid rodents, and one herpestid carnivore. Discussions are focused primarily on the Antillean populations of these taxa and when sufficient material is available taxonomic recommendations are presented.