The bats I was catching often were species that had been known by one or two specimens, but I found them to be among the most common bats. Also, I was catching bats that no one had ever seen before. During my inventory of Panama, which went on for about ten years, I fully expected to bring back four or five new species of bats from every trip. At first I didn't know the bats well enough to recognize new species in the field. I discovered the new species while making comparisons back at the museum. Once at the MCZ [Museum of Comparative Zoology] at Harvard, I was looking at a long-tongued bat that I thought was probably an Anoura geoffroyi and I compared it with that. They didn't match. Then, suddenly, like in the cartoons, a light bulb came on above my head and I realized that this was a new species, not Anoura geoffroyi! But soon I knew the bats well enough so that I easily recognized them in the field. When I got a new bat in the net, I would look at it and think, "Nobody has ever seen this before. This is a new species!" That was exciting.

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