Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July
2019 | 11(9): 14216–14219
First record of the Small
Bamboo Bat Tylonycteris fulvida
(Peters, 1872) (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)
from Nepal
Basant Sharma 1, Anoj Subedi 2, Bandana
Subedi 3, Shristee
Panthee 4 & Pushpa Raj Acharya 5
1,4 Bat Friends Pokhara, Hariyokharka-15 Pokhara,
Kaski, Nepal.
1,5 Nepal Bat Research and Conservation Union (NeBRCU), Batulechour-16
Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal.
1–4 Tribhuvan
University, Institute of Forestry, Hariyokharka-15 Pokhara, Kaski,
Nepal.
5 Central Campus of Science and
Technology, Faculty of Science, Mid-western University, Birendranagar,
Surkhet, Nepal.
1 b.s.sharma237@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 anojsubedi99@gmail.com, 3 bandanasubedi84@gmail.com,
4 shristeesharma3@gmail.com, 5 armalepushpa@gmail.com
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4502.11.9.14216-14219
| ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:70B837FC-1AE4-44E4-B783-302CF8283C8A
Editor: Paul Racey, University of
Exeter, UK. Date of publication: 26 July 2019
(online & print)
Manuscript details: #4502 | Received 22 August 2018
| Final received 30 June 2019 | Finally accepted 05 July 2019
Citation: Sharma, B., A. Subedi, B. Subedi, S. Panthee & P.R. Acharya (2019). First record of the Small Bamboo Bat Tylonycteris fulvida
(Peters, 1872) (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from Nepal. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(9): 14216–14219. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4502.11.9.14216-14219
Copyright: © Sharma et al. 2019. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s)
and the source of publication.
Funding: Rufford
Foundation, UK.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing
interests.
Acknowledgements:
We are grateful to the Rufford Foundation UK for proving grant support for the
project. We would like to express our
sincere thanks to Joe Chun-Chia Huang for confirming the identity of the
species and for their valuable suggestions.
We are also grateful to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation (DNPWC Nepal) and Department of Forests (DOF Nepal) for providing
permission to carry out trapping survey in the area.
Abstract: A bamboo bat of the genus Tylonycteris
was captured near Gupteshore Cave of Kushma in Parbat, Nepal.
Traditionally, two species of Tylonycteris
(of T. pachypus complex and T. robustula complex) are known from the Indian
subcontinent. Due to inconsistency in
taxonomic classification, several changes were recently made within the genus Tylonycteris—T. pachypus
was corrected to T. fulvida and T. robustula to T. malayana. The occurrence of Tylonycteris
from Nepal’s diversified zoogeography, however, was never mentioned. This note provides a new record of Tylonycteris from Nepal. Based on morphological characteristics and
species distribution range, this note confirms the captured species as T. fulvida.
Keywords: Gupteshore Cave, Kushma, new record,
Parbat, Tylonycteris.
A total of 128 species of bats are reported from the
Indian subcontinent, including 115 species of yangochiropterans
and 13 species of yinpterochiropterans
(Srinivasulu et al. 2010). Nepal records 53 species of bats within the
families Pteropodidae (5), Rhinolophidae
(9), Hipposideridae (4), Megadermatidae
(1), Emballonuridae (1), Vespertilionidae
(31), and Miniopteridae (2) (Acharya et al.
2010). The reported number of species
represents the bat diversity of about 5% of the world and over 40% of southern
Asia. Among these, two species are
categorized as Critically Endangered, one as Endangered, two as Vulnerable,
four as Near Threatened, 25 as Least Concern, and 19 as Data Deficient in the
National Red List (Jnawali et al. 2011). Vespertilionidae is
the most species-rich family with 58.5% of bat species from Nepal within 15
genera. Myotis (7) is the most
species-rich genus within this family, followed by Murina
(3) and Pipistrellus (3). There has been, however, no previous evidence
of the genus Tylonycteris in
Nepal.
Traditionally, Tylonycteris
was classified as containing only two species: T. pachypus
(Temminck, 1840) and T. robustula
(Thomas, 1915). Several other taxa were
included as subspecies within these two species groups (Simmons 2005). Later, Feng et al. (2008) described a third
species, T. pygmaea (Feng, Li & Wang
2008), which is smaller than its congeners.
It is endemic to the Yunnan Province in southern China, while the former
two species have much more extensive geographic ranges that greatly overlap in southeastern Asia (Tu et al. 2017). Due to inconsistency in taxonomic
classification, Tu et al. (2017) recently revalidated several changes within Tylonycteris—T. pachypus
was corrected to T. fulvida (Blyth, 1859) and T.
robustula to T. malayana
(Chasen, 1940).
Both T. fulvida and T.
malayana were previously recorded from the Indian
subcontinent (Bates & Harrison 1997).
Tylonycteris fulvida
occurs in southern and northeastern South Asia,
southern China, and much of southeastern Asia (Bates
et al. 2008a). In southern Asia, this
species is widely distributed in and known from India (Andaman Islands,
Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura, and West
Bengal) (Molur et al. 2002; Das 2003) and Bangladesh
(Khan 2001; Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu
2005). Tylonycteris
malayana ranges from northeastern
India through parts of southern China to much of mainland and insular southeastern Asia (Bates et al. 2008b). In southern Asia, this species is only
recorded from Mizoram and Andaman Islands in India (Molur
et al. 2002; Srinivasulu et al. 2018). Both these species are listed as Least
Concern in IUCN Red List (Bates et al. 2008a,b).
The study was conducted near the Gupeteshore
Cave of Kushma (headquarters of Parbat District)
during the field expedition of “Bats survey and conservation outreach programs
along Kaligandaki Canyon of Nepal” funded by the Rufford Foundation (UK) in 2017. The cave is situated in steep slope pasture
land with a small grove of trees forming a forest-like patch just above the
cave structure, where trapping was conducted.
The trapping area is dominated by Dalbergia
sissoo and clusters of Bambusa
sp.
Two mist nets (height 2.6m, lengths 4m & 6m, 38mm
mesh) were deployed to capture the bats 30cm above the ground. Mist nets were left open from 18.00h to
21.00h and continuously checked at 10-minute intervals to reduce entanglement
of the trapped bats. External
morphometric measurements of the trapped bats were taken using vernier callipers (0.01mm accuracy). The measurements taken include head and body
length (HB), forearm length (FA), ear length (EL), tail length (TL), hind foot
length (HF), tibia length (TIB), 3rd metacarpal and phalanges length
(3mt, 1ph3mt, 2ph3mt), 4th metacarpal and phalanges length (4mt,
1ph4mt, 2ph4mt), and 5th metacarpal and phalanges length (5mt,
1ph5mt, 2ph5mt). Body fur and other
special features were noted. Body weight
(BW) was measured using a Pesola spring balance (1gm accuracy).
A single male specimen of Tylonycteris
sp. was caught in the mist net located at 28.2260N & 83.6740E at an elevation of 868m
on 27 April 2018 at 19.30h (two hours after sunset). The morphometric measurements are given in
Table 1. The recorded location of Tylonycteris sp. is given in Fig. 1. The bat was released after images were
taken. It was identified by referring to
Bates & Harrison (1997) and consultation with experts in the field.
We identified the bat on the basis of its
morphological characteristics: 1) shape of head, 2) circular pads on the base
of thumb, 3) pad on the sole of the hindfoot, 4) lengths of 3rd, 4th,
and 5th metacarpal, and 5) pelage colouration. Tylonycteris
is a minute bat. Its head was
characteristically flattened with the nostrils projecting forward and slightly
downwards (Image 1). The fleshy pads at
the base of the thumb and on the sole of the hindfoot were the most striking
features of Tylonycteris (Image 1). The wings were short with the 3rd,
4th, and 5th metacarpals about equal in length (Table
1). The dorsal pelage was thick, short,
and golden-brown, except for the muzzle which was darker, while the ventral
pelage was not so dense and was paler (Image 1).
The wide distribution of T. fulvida
along southern Asia, recorded at the closest location from Nepal, i.e., in
India at Sikkim and Darjeeling of West Bengal (near the border of Nepal and
India), body size, and distinguishing pelage colouration strongly suggest the
captured bat to be T. fulvida rather than T.
malayana, as the latter has no further record
from southern Asia except from Mizoram (at the border of India and Myanmar) and
the Andaman Islands in India (Molur et al. 2002; Srinivasulu et al. 2018).
Additionally, the pelage colouration in T. malayana
is uniformly grey-brown dorsally (as opposed to that of the captured bat) and
slightly paler ventrally (Bates & Harrison 1997; Srinivasulu
et al. 2018). With this note, we confirm
the presence of T. fulvida in Nepal,
highlighting the first record for the country.
Table 1. Morphometric measurements of Tylonycteris sp. captured Gupteshore
Cave at Kushma in Parbat, Nepal, compared with that
of T. fulvida and T. malayana.
|
Parameters |
Measurements (mm) (captured
bat) |
Bates & Harrison (1997) |
|
|
T. fulvida (range) |
T. malayana (range) |
||
|
FA |
26.9 |
26.1–29.0 |
26.6–28.1 |
|
HB |
38.5 |
34.0–46.0 |
40.0–44.0 |
|
TL |
25.8 |
26.0–33.0 |
26.0–31.0 |
|
HF |
6.6 |
5.0–7.0 |
5.0–5.5 |
|
EL |
9.3 |
9.0–10.0 |
8.5–10.5 |
|
TIB |
11.6 |
- |
- |
|
3mt |
26.4 |
23.8–27.0 |
25.8–26.4 |
|
1ph3mt |
11.4 |
- |
- |
|
2ph3mt |
14.6 |
- |
- |
|
4mt |
26.6 |
23.8–26.9 |
25.4–26.0 |
|
1ph4mt |
10.6 |
- |
- |
|
2ph4mt |
7.1 |
- |
- |
|
5mt |
26.1 |
23.2–26.0 |
24.8–25.6 |
|
1ph5mt |
7.2 |
- |
- |
|
2ph5mt |
3.5 |
- |
- |
|
BW (gm) |
4 |
- |
- |
For figure
& image - - click here
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