Thanks, Jim. It's enlightening to know that both are correct but I prefer the more commonly used Mexican.
Fritz ________________________________ From: Jim Kennedy [mailto:jkenn...@batcon.org] Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 3:04 PM To: Fritz Holt Cc: Nico Escamilla; jerryat...@aol.com; Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: Re: free-tailed bats Our common free-tailed bat is _Tadarida brasiliensis_, subspecies _mexicana_. So it is perfectly acceptable to use either the species or subspecies epithet as a common name. Jim (currently in Elizabethtown, KY) On Jul 26, 2010, at 2:40 PM, "Fritz Holt" <fh...@townandcountryins.com<mailto:fh...@townandcountryins.com>> wrote: I have seen them referred to as Brazilian free-tailed bats in other written material and wondered if they were mistaken and should have said Mexican or are there two distinct varieties of free-tailed bats? What's the answer, Jim? Fritz ________________________________ From: Nico Escamilla [mailto:pitboun...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 12:26 PM To: <mailto:jerryat...@aol.com> jerryat...@aol.com<mailto:jerryat...@aol.com> Cc: <mailto:Texascavers@texascavers.com> Texascavers@texascavers.com<mailto:Texascavers@texascavers.com> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Another LeBlanc article on caving : Kickapoo Cavern SP : Seems like bats no longer want to be Mexican and they turned Brasilian, LOL must be all the violence going on :-P On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 10:08 PM, <<mailto:jerryat...@aol.com>jerryat...@aol.com<mailto:jerryat...@aol.com>> wrote: Into the dark: Spelunk in the raw abyss of Kickapoo Cavern By Pamela LeBlanc<http://www.austin360.com/recreation/into-the-dark-822622.html?service=popup&authorContact=822622&authorContactField=0> AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Updated: 7:24 p.m. Sunday, July 25, 2010 Published: 5:07 p.m. Sunday, July 25, 2010 Besides the wild cave tours, which are offered by reservation only on Saturdays, the park is known for its bat population. From April through September, a colony of more than half a million Brazilian free-tailed bats swoops out of Stuart Bat Cave, which is slightly smaller than Kickapoo Cavern, on a nightly mission to feast on insects. <http://www.austin360.com/recreation/into-the-dark-822622.html>http://www.austin360.com/recreation/into-the-dark-822622.html