Ardops nichollsi was described byOldfield Thomas in 1891 asStenoderma nichollsi, and assigned toArdops byGerrit Smith Miller Jr. in 1906. It is theonly species in the genus.[4] Several of the subspecies were initially considered full species, but were reconsidered in a 1967 paper by J. Knox Jones andAlbert Schwartz which examined newly collected specimens and found little difference in the variation between the named species.[5] The subspecies vary considerably in size but otherwise are very similar.[5] There are five known subspecies:
A. n monstserratensis: found on the northern Lesser Antilles, fromSt. Martin toMarie-Galante. Jones and Schwartz consideredA. n. annectens, found onGuadeloupe, Marie-Galate, and Antigua a separate subspecies based on morphological data. However, a 2017 analysis considered it as a synonym ofA. n. monsterratensis based on reanalysis of the morphological data, though they did not have any genetic data from bats from Guadeloupe to test directly.A. n. monsterratensis is the largest subspecies.
The tree bat has brown fur, with the back varying from Prout's brown to buffy brown and the front "rich brownish, tinged with grayish white". There is a white spot where the wing meets the body, typically more prominent in females than males.[5]
The species issexually dimorphic, with females larger than the males. The magnitude of the sexual dimorphism varies between the subspecies.[5]
