SEABCRU » Vespertilionidae

Fangtastic — a new Hypsugo from Lao PDR and Vietnam

Gabor Csorba — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 01:29:08 +0000

A long awaited description has finally been done by T. Görföl and his colleagues – a new species of Hypsugo was already mentioned as Hypsugo sp.A in their SE Asian bat barcoding study by Francis et al. in 2010. The species can be readily distinguished from all other SE Asian congeners by its blackish pelage and conspicuously long canines; hence its name H. dolichodon, Long-toothed Pipistrelle. It resembles to H. pulveratus, a widely distributed species in Indochina and although H. dolichodon is presently known from Vietnam and Lao PDR only, it is worth to check previously collected materials as its distribution area may not be limited to the known territory!

Hypsugo dolichodon displaying its rather impressive canines

Skulls of H.dolichodon and H. pulveratus

TAMÁS GÖRFÖL, GÁBOR CSORBA, JUDITH L. EGER, NGUYEN TRUONG SON & CHARLES M. FRANCIS (2014). Canines make the difference: a new species of Hypsugo (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from Laos and Vietnam. Zootaxa 3887 (2): 239–250

The article can be downloaded here

Hardwicke’s woolly bats sleep in two species of carnivorous pitcher plants– but which one is the better roost?

Michael Schoener — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:57:05 +0000

Written by Michael Gerhard Schöner and Caroline Regina Schöner.

Here we present our new study on the unusual interaction between bats (Kerivoula hardwickii hardwickii) and carnivorous pitcher plants (Nepenthes). Using radio-telemetry we discovered that the bats exclusively used two pitcher plant species as roosts in Brunei Darussalam. Nepenthes hemsleyana benefits from its inhabitants by gaining nutrients from their feces. In contrast, Nepenthes bicalcarata cannot gain any nutrients because all pitchers in which we found bats were either wilted or had small holes at their base through which the fluid had drained off. Our research on the microclimate inside the pitchers, the parasite infestation and the body conditions of the bats that had used either Nepenthes hemsleyana or Nepenthes bicalcarata indicates that Nepenthes hemsleyana is a higher quality roost for the bats. However, Nepenthes bicalcarata is more common throughout north-western Borneo than Nepenthes hemsleyana. By additionally using these lower quality roosts the bats are able to expand their range.

Our study shows how the local supply of roosts with different qualities affects the behavior and body condition of their inhabitants and—as a consequence—how the demand of the inhabitants can influence evolutionary adaptations of the roost providing species.

Schöner, C.R., M.G. Schöner, G. Kerth & T.U. Grafe (2013): Supply determines demand: influence of partner quality and quantity on the interactions between bats and pitcher plants. Oecologia, Online first. DOI 10.1007/s00442-013-2615-x

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00442-013-2615-x

Please also notice that our first publication on this subject is now freely available and is attached.

Grafe, T.U., C.R. Schöner, A. Junaidi, G. Kerth &M.G. Schöner (2011): A novel resource-service mutualism between bats and pitcher plants. Biology Letters 7: 436-439.

Prey detection performance in Kerivoulinae and Murininae

Tigga Kingston — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 20:31:52 +0000

In much of SE Asia, the Kerivoula and Murina forage for insects in dense forest habitats. Using echolocation to detect prey in such “acoustically cluttered” environments is a challenge because of the problems of forward and backward masking. The role of the extremely broad-band, high-frequency FM sweeps in prey detection in these vespertilionid subfamilies was investigated experimentally with wild-caught bats in Peninsular Malaysia, specifically the relationship between bandwidth and backward masking. Based on work on European Myotis we hypothesized that bats should be able to detect prey close to background. All the tested species were able to catch a suspended mealworm as close as 6 cm from a standardized vegetation-like background, and some as close as 2.5 cm. The performance and call data corroborate the hypothesis that bats with very broadband calls and high-frequency components have access to prey very close to vegetation and establish this as a more general principle in bat sensory ecology.

Schmieder, D. A., Kingston, T., Hashim, R., Siemers, B. M. (2012), Sensory constraints on prey detection performance in an ensemble of vespertilionid understorey rain forest bats. Functional Ecology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.02024.x

Abstract can be read here. For a pdf, please contact tigga(dot)kingston(at)ttu(dot)edu,

A video explaining the study for a lay audience is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dQbgC5n7mAI# with a lay summary here http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/summaries.html#schmieder

The paper is dedicated to our dear friend and colleague Bjoern Siemers, who tragically passed away in May 2012.

Unravelling the Myotis muricola muddle

Tigga Kingston — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 22:36:34 +0000

Congratulations to Sigit Wiantoro, Ibnu Maryanto and Mohd Tajuddin b Abdullah on their recent publication in Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science (JTAS). Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses clearly indicate that populations of the widespread Myotis muricola either side of the Wallace Line are sufficiently divergent to be considered separate species, and are sister taxa to M. mystacinus.

The article can be downloaded here.

Wiantoro, S., Maryanto, I. and Abdullah M. T. (2012). Phylogeny and phylogeography of Myotis muricola (Gray, 1946) (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the West and East of Wallace’s Line inferred from partial mtDNA cytochrome b gene. Pertanika J. Trop. Agric. Sci 35 (2): 271-292.

Bats of Gunung Stong State Park, Kelantan, Malaysia

Jayaraj Vijaya Kumaran — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:29:32 +0000

Information of small mammal diversity in Kelantan is still scarce, but a recent survey of small mammals was conducted in Gunung Stong State Park. Trapping with standard mist nets and harp traps generated five new distributional records of bats in Gunung Stong State Park and a first record of Myotis muricola in Kelantan. The study also shows that Gunung Stong State Park is one of the three areas in Peninsular Malaysia where all four Cynopterus species that can be found in Peninsular Malaysia coexist.

The paper is open access and can be downloaded here.

Jayaraj, V.K., N.F.D.A. Tahir, N.A.Udin, N.F.K. Baharin, S.K. Ismail & S.N.A. Zakaria (2012). Species diversity of small mammals at Gunung Stong State Park, Kelantan, Malaysia. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(6): 2617–2628.

Cambodian bat list grows

Tigga Kingston — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:14:04 +0000

The species list for Cambodia continues to climb! Recent surveys and morphological reviews of collections have added five new records, bringing the current count to 66 species. The new records are of Macroglossus minimus, Pipistrellus paterculus, P. javanicus, Hypsugo cadornae and Miniopterus pusillus.

Neil M Furey, Phauk Sophany, Phen Sarith, Chheang Sarak, Ith Saveng, Paul JJ Bates and Gabor Csorba (2012). New country records for five bat species (Chiroptera) from Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2: 141-149.

There is also a nice article from FFI on Neil’s work in Cambodia working with FFI and Royal University of Phnom Phen on the Biodiversity Conservation Masters.

Social organization and genetic structure in forest bats

Tigga Kingston — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:25:40 +0000

I am happy to say that our recent publication on the insights into social organization and genetic that can be gained from combining spatially explicit capture data with microsatellite analysis of genetic structure is now available online. The study was conducted at Krau Wildlife Reserve, Malaysia, and we focused on three species of Rhinolophus, and three species of Kerivoula.

Although all six species are co-distributed across the large Krau Wildlife Reserve, they have different roosting and social ecologies, and different patterns of local dispersion. This generated predictions of genetic structure at fine to landscape scales. The spatially explicit genotype data did indeed reveal differences in the extent of movement and gene flow and genetic structure across continuous intact forest. As might be expected, highest positive genetic structure was observed in tree-roosting taxa that roost either alone or in small groups, but there was a complete absence of genetic autocorrelation in the cave-roosting colonial species. The study was motivated by the need to understand how interspecific differences in roosting ecology and social structure might influence the natural limits of gene flow in unmodified habitat as a basis for predicting the impact of landscape-scale forest clearance and fragmentation.

Stephen J. Rossiter, Akbar Zubaid, Adura Mohd-Adnan, Matthew J. Struebig, Thomas H. Kunz, Sucharita Gopal, Eric J. Petit and Tigga Kingston (2011). Social organization and genetic structure: insights from co-distrubted bat populations. Molecular Ecology DOI: doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05391.x

Email tigga(dot)kingston(at)ttu(dot)edu or s(dot)j(dot)rossiter(at)qmul(dot)ac(dot)uk for a pdf copy

Morphological studies of Malaysian bats suggest geographic variation and cryptic species

Pipat Soisook — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:09:52 +0000

Whilst DNA barcoding is currently popular in bat studies, basic analyses of morphological characters of Malaysian bats, recently done by the UNIMAS team, still appears to be useful in providing important data on geographic variation and, even occurrence of potential cryptic species.

The first paper, a morphological study of Malaysian Kerivoula spp., by Hasan and Abdullah (2011) published in the Mammal Study, demonstrates the usefulness of using morphometrics in identifying species. The paper shows the presence of ‘K. papillosa type small’ in sympatric with ‘K. papillosa type large’ in Sarawak suggesting occurrence of potential cryptic species and indicating that further study is needed.

Another study on morphological variation, this time of the fruit bat Penthetor lucasi populations within Sarawak, by Rahman and Abdullah (2010) was published in Tropical Natural History. Morphometric analyses demonstrated that three different geographic populations in the area differed significantly in some external and craniodental measurements.

More details can be found in the full papers (contact tabdulla@frst.unimas.my for copies):
Rahman, M. R. A. and Abdullah, M. T. 2010. Morphological Variation in the Dusky Fruit Bat, Penthetor lucasi, in Sarawak, Malaysia. Tropical Natural History, 10: 141-158.

Hasan, N. H. and Abdullah, M. T. 2011. A Morphological Analysis of Malaysian Kerivoula (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae). Mammal Study, 36:87-97.

Three New Species of Murina from Vietnam

Tigga Kingston — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:02:00 +0000

The ranks of Murina are swelling! Since Nancy Simmon’s review of 2005, 8 additional Southeast Asian species have been described, and now another three species join the ranks. Gabor Csorba, Nguyen Truong Son, Ith Saveng and Neil Furey examined specimens from Cambodia and Vietnam, and began with a timely redescription of Murina tubinaris before describing M. cineracea, M. beelzebub and M. walstoni. As the name suggests, M. cineracea is any ashy-grey colour, and was formerly included in M. tubinaris. The type specimen comes from Cambodia but it is known from scattered localities throughout continental Southeast Asia and into the Indian Subcontinent. M. beelzebub is a dark and feisty species collected in predominantly forested reserves in Vietnam, and M. walstoni a small bat with brown dorsal fur and a pure white ventral surface from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Gabor Csorba, Ngyuen Truong Son, Ith Saveng, and Neil M. Furey. 2011. Revealing cryptic bat diversity: three new Murina and redescription of M. tubinaris from Southeast Asia. Journal of Mammalogy, 92: 891-904.

For a copy of the article, please contact the corresponding author Gabor Csorba csorba(at)nhmus.hu

New Glischropus species

Tigga Kingston — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:55:24 +0000

With their unpigmented thumb pads, and outwardly-displaced second upper incisor, bats of the vespertilionid genus Glischropus are fairly distinctive. Two species have long been recognized, the widespread G. tylopus, and G. javanus known only from Java. However, in a recent issue of Zootaxa, Gabor Csorba from the Hungarian Natural History Museum, describes a third species based on specimens recently collected from Cambodia.

Glischropus bucephalus is significantly larger than G. tylopus with a more elevated frontal region of the skull and a weak, but present sagittal crest. Examination of specimens from other countries suggests a geographic division, with G. tylopus occuring south of the Isthmus of Kra and G. bucephalus to the north.

Csorba, G. (2011). A new species of Glischropus from the Indochinese Subregion (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). Zootaxa 2925: 41-48.

Please contact Gabor Csorba for a copy of this article csorba.gabor.hnhm@gmail.com