An Attractive new Bat Species from West Africa
A quarter of all mammal species on earth are bats. About 25% of the nearly 1000 bat species live in Africa. Almost every year new species are discovered, which shows that this group of mammals has been only insufficiently studied. During research on the small mammal diversity in the West African country of Guinea, mammalogist Dr. Jan Decher from the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig - Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity in Bonn and his team discovered an attractive small bat, which will have the scientific name Neoromicia isabella in future, or Isabelline White-winged Serotine in English. The tiny bat has a body length of 4-5 cm and weighs about 5 grams. Flight membranes, tail membrane and the fur of the belly are colored white; the ears, lips and feet are also almost white. In contrast, the hairs on the back are isabella-coloured, that is light orange-brown. This unique contrasting colouration differs from all other species occurring in West Africa. Genetic studies carried out in the Centre for Molecular Biodiversity at Museum Koenig support its status as a new species.
Photo: Isabelline White-winged Serotine bat (Neoromicia isabella) from the Simandou-Mountains in Guinea (Photo: © Jan Decher 2008)
More information: https://bonn.leibniz-lib.de/en/zfmk/presse/an-attractive-new-bat-species...
Contact:
Dr. Jan Decher
Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig
Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn, Germany
Phone: +49 228 9122262
E-mail: j.decher [at] zfmk.de
Source:
Decher, J., Hoffmann, A., Schaer, J., Norris, R.W., Kadjo, B., Astrin, J., Monadjem, A., Hutterer, R. 2016. Bat diversity in the Simandou Mountain Range of Guinea, with the description of a new white-winged vespertilionid. Acta Chiropterologica 17(2): 255-282 (for 2015)
doi: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.3161/15081109ACC2015.17.2.003
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