Van Gelder's bat
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Taxonomy and etymology
The bat was discovered by Richard Van Gelder, then curator of mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History. The bat was collected on the AMNH Puritan Expedition to Baja California in 1957 on the Tres Maria Islands (south of Baja) by Richard Zweifel (expedition herpetologist) and Oakes Plimpton (expedition assistant). Van Gelder dubbed the bat "dubiaquercus" in honor of the collectors: dubia means "doubt" in Latin, as zweifel does in German; quercus is Latin for "oak".
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Range and habitat
Van Gelder's bat is found in Central America where its range includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. It has been documented at a range of elevations from 100–2,300 m (330–7,550 ft) above sea level.
Conservation
As of 2018, it is evaluated as a near-threatened species by the IUCN. It meets the criteria for this classification because it is locally uncommon throughout its range; it is experiencing significant population declines; and its habitats are "highly fragile".