BONACCORSO: A PANAMANIAN BAT COMMUNITY


 During the March-May sampling, 27 percent of the A. jamaicensis
adult females captured were nulliparous (Fig. 12,), and nearly all of
these probably had been born in the first or second birth pulse of the
previous year (8 to 12 months before). Through the next three bi-
monthly periods the percentage of nulliparous females in the popula-
tion steadily rose to 49 percent, as recruitment occurred from the off-
spring of the year. Between November and the following March the
proportion of nulliparous females declined, not from their having given
birth, but presumably from higher mortality and/or dispersal rates
than are found in older females.

GROUNDSTORY FRUGIVORE GUILD
 Groundstory frugivores follow a reproductive pattern similar to
canopy frugivores. There are two births per year per female, one in the
dry-to-wet season transition and the other in mid-wet season (Fig. 14).
Simultaneous pregnancy and lactation in March-May and recaptures
of marked individuals indicate that females have a postpartum estrus.
Females are reproductively inactive from mid-October through
December.

 Artibeus phaeotis


 1001 Pregnant

 90- j Lactating

 80 r Nonreproducing
 V)
 S-70

 60

 o 50

 O 40
 z
 U 30

 20-

 10-
 few data

 J-M M-M M-J J-S S-N N-D
 N=28 14 14 15 19


FIGURE 13.-Reproductive timing in female Artibeus phaeotis.


1979