Big-eared horseshoe bat

The big-eared horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus macrotis) is a bat species within the Rhinolophidae native to China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.[1]

Big-eared horseshoe bat
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Rhinolophidae
Genus: Rhinolophus
Species:
R. macrotis
Binomial name
Rhinolophus macrotis
Blyth, 1844
Big-eared horseshoe bat range

Taxonomy

The big-eared horseshoe bat was described as a new species in 1844 by English zoologist Edward Blyth. The holotype had been collected by Brian Houghton Hodgson in Nepal.[2] The species name "macrotis" is from Ancient Greek makrós meaning "long" and oûs meaning "ear".[3] It contains many subspecies; a 2008 paper listed seven such subspecies:[4]

  • R. m. macrotis Blyth, 1844
  • R. m. episcopus Allen, 1923
  • R. m. caldwelli Allen, 1923
  • R. m. siamensis Gyldenstolpe, 1917
  • R. m. dohrni Andersen, 1907
  • R. m. hirsutus Andersen, 1905
  • R. m. topali Csorba & Bates, 1995

R. m. hirsutus, R. m. episcopus were originally described as full species, but George Henry Hamilton Tate included them as subspecies of R. macrotis in a 1943 publication. In the same publication, Tate included R. m. caldwelli as a subspecies; previously, it was considered a subspecies of R. episcopus.[5][6] Most recently, R. m. siamensis has been considered a full species rather than a subspecies, known as the Thai horseshoe bat.[5]

Description

The big-eared horseshoe bat can be differentiated from other horseshoe bats by its very long ears and a tongue-shaped sella that is long and broad.[5]

Range and habitat

The big-eared horseshoe bat is found in several countries in South and Southeast Asia including Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. As of 2008, its presence was possible but not confirmed in Bhutan. It has been documented at a range of elevations from 200–1,692 m (656–5,551 ft) above sea level.[1]

References
  1. Tu, V.; Csorba, G.; Srinivasulu, C. (2019). "Rhinolophus macrotis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T19550A21978583.
  2. Blyth, Edward (1844). "Notices of various Mammalia, with descriptions of many new species". The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 13: 485–486.
  3. Natural History Society of Montreal (1857). The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Dawson. p. 92.
  4. Sun, Ke-Ping; Feng, Jiang; Jiang, Ting-Lei; Ma, Jie; Zhang, Zhen-Zhen; Jin, Long-Ru (2008). "A new cryptic species of Rhinolophus macrotis (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) from Jiangxi Province, China". Acta Chiropterologica. 10: 1–10. doi:10.3161/150811008X331045. S2CID 86545163.
  5. Tu, Vuong Tan; Hassanin, Alexandre; Görföl, Tamás; Arai, Satoru; Fukui, Dai; Thanh, Hoang Trung; Son, Nguyen Truong; Furey, Neil M.; Csorba, Gábor (2017). "Integrative taxonomy of the Rhinolophus macrotis complex (Chiroptera, Rhinolophidae) in Vietnam and nearby regions" (PDF). Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 55 (3): 177–198. doi:10.1111/jzs.12169.
  6. Allen, G. M. (1923). "New Chinese Bats" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (85): 3.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.