Rhinopoma microphyllum
Creators: name: Benda, P.
name: Kasso, M.
name: Nicolas, V.
name: Pleurdeau, D.
name: Stoetzel, E.
name: Workalemahu, S.
name: Bekele, A.
name: Denys, C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Chiroptera
Rhinopomatidae
Rhinopoma
Rhinopoma microphyllum

description: Rhinopoma microphyllum (Brünnichı 1782) – greater mouse-tailed bat   
 Material. 1 ♀ ad (DDW22), Goda Buticha Cave, 9 km S of Hurso (23 km WSW of Dire Dawa), 09°33 ʹ N, 41°38 ʹ E, 1382 m a. s. l., 23/11/2017.   
 An adult female of the greater mouse-tailed bat was found inside the Goda Buticha Cave. The surroundings of the cave are composed of dry scrubland with rocky cliffs, and a small village with some cultivations is found near the cave. The environment thus corresponds well with the known ecological requirements of this bat (see, e.g. Schlitter and Qumsiyeh 1996). This finding represents the first record of R. microphyllum in Ethiopia and also a range extension of the south-eastern limit of the known distribution of the species in Africa (Van Cakenberghe and De Vree 1994; Schlitter and Qumsiyeh 1996; Aulagnier 2013b). This bat is known from Sudan and Djibouti, but not Somalia (Koopman 1975; Pearch et al. 2001; Lanza et al. 2015). In Sudan, it was recorded southernmost in southern Kordofan (Jebel Talao, 2 km NE of Kaduqli, 11°02 ʹ N; Kock 1969) and thus, the Ethiopian locality is the southernmost extension of this species ’ range in eastern Africa. The new Ethiopian record also originates from the highest altitude locality of R. microphyllum in Africa, since in other African range countries this bat occurs rather in lowlands or in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco up to 1100 m a. s. l. (cf. Aulagnier and Destre 1985). On the other hand, the Ethiopian locality is still not the highest site of the whole range of this bat, since in the Middle East it has been recorded up to 1775 m a. s. l. (Benda et al. 2012a).   
 Measurements of the collected specimen are as follows: weight 20 g, head and body length 79 mm, tail length 57 mm, forearm length 69 mm, ear length 17 mm, tragus length 7 mm, largest skull length 19.90 mm, condylocanine length 17.76 mm, zygomatic width 11.72 mm, neurocranium width 8.47 mm, neurocranium height 6.87 mm, length of upper tooth-row 7.11 mm. The species identification of R. microphyllum was based on the above values showing large body size of the specimen as well as its relatively short tail, much shorter than the forearm (cf. Hill 1977; Van Cakenberghe and De Vree 1994). The comparison of the measurements of the bat from Dire Dawa with those of other African samples of R. microphyllum (Kock 1969; Koopman 1975; Hill 1977; Koch-Weser 1984; Van Cakenberghe and De Vree 1994; Pearch et al. 2001) show the medium-sized body of the Ethiopian specimen, comparable with bats from Egypt, Sudan and Morocco, rather smaller than bats from the Sahel, but much larger than a bat from the geographically closest population from Djibouti (210 km away), which was referred to the small-sized west-Arabian form R. m. asirensis Nader et Kock, 1983 by Pearch et al. (2001). Similarly, the results of molecular genetic analysis positioned the Ethiopian sample of R. microphyllum among the samples from North Africa, Middle East and India (Figure 2). Although the Iranian samples created a separate cluster (posterior probability 0.98), the node grouping all other specimens was not supported (posterior probability 0.53). In this analysis, a sample from south-western Saudi Arabia, from near Bishah, a site located 340 km from the type locality of R. m. asirensis (Al Jowa, 17°00 ʹ N, 43°3 ʹ E; Nader and Kock 1983), also clustered with bats from the broad area from Morocco to India. Although no type locality samples were included in this genetic comparison, the results still suggest that R. microphyllum, as a species, constitutes one morphometrically diverse but phylogenetically homogenous taxon (Schlitter and Qumsiyeh 1996; Hulva et al. 2007; Levin et al. 2008), rather than a series of more separated taxa (Hill 1977; Van Cakenberghe and De Vree 1994). Hence, the results of morphometric and molecular genetic analyses, though based on the examination of a single bat, together placed the newly discovered Ethiopian population within the species limits of R. microphyllum.
description: Published as part of Benda, P., Kasso, M., Nicolas, V., Pleurdeau, D., Stoetzel, E., Workalemahu, S., Bekele, A. & Denys, C., 2019, New data on bats from Dire Dawa regionı eastern Ethiopiaı with the first record of Rhinopoma microphyllum in the country, pp. 2579-2590 in Journal of Natural History 53 (41) on page 2584, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2019.1705416, http://zenodo.org/record/3666532