A noteworthy case of leucism in Artibeus lituratus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)
López-Wilchis, RicardoAlgel León Galván, Miguel
Several cases of color aberration have been documented in bats, but only very few have been reported to display the genetic disorder called leucism; a genetic variation in pigmentation, such as albinism, but with a very low knowledge. The main objective of this paper is to describe a first, and noteworthy, case of two adult leucistic Artibeus lituratus trapped in a cave in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The reproductively active specimens, one male and one female, were captured at the same time in the same shelter, but had a very different color pattern each. With the actual data it would be highly speculative to try to explain the eminent color differences between our two leucistic individuals, but we assume that the population of A. lituratus in La Montañita has a fixed frequency of the albinotic allele.