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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">102</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="index">urn:lsid:arphahub.com:pub:73abe0ce-d97c-5d7c-bee5-b8e6e6fe6a17</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title xml:lang="en">ARPHA Preprints</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title xml:lang="en">preprints</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Pensoft Publishers</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3897/arphapreprints.e142564</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">142564</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Short Communication</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="biological_taxon">
          <subject>Chiroptera</subject>
          <subject>Mammalia</subject>
          <subject>Thyropteridae</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="scientific_subject">
          <subject>Bats (Chiroptera)</subject>
          <subject>Populations &amp; Communities</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>First record of leucism in the Spix’s Disc-winged Bat <italic>Thyroptera tricolor</italic> (Chiroptera: Thyropteridae) in Belize</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group content-type="authors">
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Martin</surname>
            <given-names>Vanessa Irene</given-names>
          </name>
          <email xlink:type="simple">martinvanessa18@gmail.com</email>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Kilburn</surname>
            <given-names>Vanessa L</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Charette</surname>
            <given-names>Mathieu</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Miller</surname>
            <given-names>Bruce W</given-names>
          </name>
          <uri content-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5719-1942</uri>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <aff id="A1">
        <label>1</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society, Middlesex, Belize</addr-line>
        <institution>Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Middlesex</addr-line>
        <country>Belize</country>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A3">
        <label>3</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">, , </addr-line>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A2">
        <label>2</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Neotropical bat acoustic assessments, Canadian Lakes, United States of America</addr-line>
        <institution>Neotropical bat acoustic assessments</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Canadian Lakes</addr-line>
        <country>United States of America</country>
      </aff>
      <author-notes>
        <fn fn-type="corresp">
          <p>Corresponding author: Vanessa Irene Martin (<email xlink:type="simple">martinvanessa18@gmail.com</email>).</p>
        </fn>
        <fn fn-type="edited-by">
          <p>Academic editor: </p>
        </fn>
      </author-notes>
      <pub-date pub-type="collection">
        <year>2024</year>
      </pub-date>
      <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>25</day>
        <month>11</month>
        <year>2024</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>5</volume>
      <uri content-type="arpha" xlink:href="http://openbiodiv.net/21160477-85DD-56C2-9273-2099621E38C1">21160477-85DD-56C2-9273-2099621E38C1</uri>
      <history>
        <date date-type="received">
          <day>23</day>
          <month>11</month>
          <year>2024</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="accepted">
          <day>23</day>
          <month>11</month>
          <year>2024</year>
        </date>
      </history>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Vanessa Irene Martin, Vanessa L Kilburn, Mathieu Charette, Bruce W Miller</copyright-statement>
        <license license-type="creative-commons-attribution" xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" xlink:type="simple">
          <license-p>This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <label>Abstract</label>
        <p>Although chromatic disorders are widely reported in the animal kingdom, few reports of true leucism have been published in Neotropical bats. In this note we report our observations of a leucistic <italic>Thyroptera tricolor </italic>Spix (Spix’s Disc-winged Bat) in the Maya Mountains of the Stann Creek District of Belize. Observations made between March 2023 and April 2024 at the Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society (T.R.E.E.S) research station recorded a group of <italic>Thyroptera tricolor</italic> with one leucistic male identified on three separate occasions. Our observations are the first documented account of leucism for this species and the Thyropteridae family.</p>
      </abstract>
      <funding-group>
        <funding-statement>Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society (T.R.E.E.S)</funding-statement>
      </funding-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>
