Laephotis kirinyaga MONADJEM, PATTERSON, WEBALA & DEMOS 2020, SP. NOV.
Creators: name: Monadjem, Ara
name: Demos, Terrence C
name: Dalton, Desire L
name: Webala, Paul W
name: Musila, Simon
name: Kerbis Peterhans, Julian C
name: Patterson, Bruce D
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Chiroptera
Vespertilionidae
Laephotis
Laephotis kirinyaga

description: LAEPHOTIS KIRINYAGA MONADJEM, PATTERSON, WEBALA & DEMOS SP. NOV.
EAST AFRICAN SEROTINE
LSID: http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub: 71737F08-2938-4403-8385-5438B2E5EABE
Synonymy
Eptesicus capensis Kingdon (1974).
Pipistrellus capensis garambe Thorn & Kerbis Peterhans (2009) (in part).
Neoromicia capensis Patterson & Webala (2012).
Neoromicia somalica Benda et al. (2016) (in part).
Holotype: FMNH 234558, field number BDP 7516. This specimen was collected by Bruce D. Patterson, Paul W. Webala, Carl W. Dick and Beryl Makori. It is an adult male, with muscle tissue in liquid nitrogen, the body fixed in formalin and preserved in ethanol, now with skull extracted and cleaned. Type locality: Marsabit National Park, 1.3 km SE of campground near Headquarters, Marsabit County, Kenya (2.3090°N, 38.0001°E; Fig. 1). The type specimen was netted on 27 July 2015 at an elevation of 1280 m above sea level.
Paratypes: One other male (FMNH 234559) was captured at the same location and on the same night as the type specimen and is considered a paratype. Seven other individuals (FMNH 234546, FMNH 234549– 234553, FMNH 234556–234557, four males and three females), were collected close to the type locality at elevations ranging from 1157 to 1356 m from 16 to 26 July 2015 (Supporting Information, Table S1); they closely resemble the holotype genetically (Fig. 3C) and morphologically (Tables 2–4) and are also considered paratypes.
Etymology: The specific epithet is a Kikuyu word for Mount Kenya and reflects the distribution of the species in the northern highlands of Kenya. It is a noun in apposition.
Diagnosis: This species is similar in size and appearance to its sister species Lae. capensis. It is easily distinguished from the long-eared Laephotis species by its shorter ears. Of the short-eared Laephotis species, Lae. stanleyi and Lae. robertsi are significantly larger in forearm length and most craniodental measurements (Tables 2–4). In contrast, Lae. malagasyensis is smaller, especially in cranial measurements (Table 3). Laephotis matroka is similar in external and craniodental measurements but is typically darker brown above and medium brown below (Goodman, 2011). In any case, Lae. robertsi, Lae. malagasyensis and Lae. matroka are all endemic to Madagascar (Goodman et al., 2012, 2017) and genetically distinct from Lae. kirinyaga (Fig. 3C). Laephotis kirinyaga closely resembles Lae. capensis, from which it differs by 8.3% on the Cytb gene (Supporting Information, Table S4). Externally, the two species are alike and broadly overlap in size, but Lae. kirinyaga is on average smaller in most measurements, particularly total length and forearm length (Table 2). Likewise, Lae. capensis is on average larger for all craniodental measurements (but with significant overlap), except greatest skull height, which is greater in Lae. kirinyaga. This is borne out in the lateral profile of the skull (Fig. 7), which is visibly flatter in Lae. capensis. These two species occupy mostly separate regions in multivariate space (Fig. 6), but again with some overlap. In contrast, the three specimens assigned to Lae. kirinyaga from Ethiopia and Guinea (labelled ‘cf. capensisW’ in Fig. 6), for which genetic data are lacking, fall completely within the multivariate space of the Lae. kirinyaga specimens (labelled ‘cf. capensis’) that have been sequenced.
Measurements are presented as the mean ± SD, range and sample size (N). Measurements are of the holotype, other individuals of the new species and other ‘short-eared’ species of Laephotis. Measurements for the three Malagasy endemics, Lae. robertsi, Lae. matroka and Lae. malagasyensis, are taken from Goodman et al. (2017).
Description: Exernal characters: Laephotis kirinyaga is a medium-sized pipistrelle-like bat, with strongly contrasting fur dorsally and ventrally. The dorsal pelage is medium brown, with most individual hairs being tipped light yellowish brown, giving the bat a brightly coloured appearance. The ventral pelage is cream–white to light cream–brown, with a dark base. The ears are short and rounded, and the tragus is curved distally on both anterior and posterior margins,
Measurements are presented as the mean ± SD, range and sample size (N). Measurements are of the holotype, other individuals of the new species and other ‘short-eared’ species of Laephotis. Measurements for the three Malagasy endemics, Lae. robertsi, Lae. matroka and Lae. malagasyensis, are taken from Goodman et al. (2017).
ending in a rounded tip, as in Lae. capensis (Monadjem et al., 2020b). The ears and muzzle are dark brown in colour, and the skin around the eyes is dark brown in the type specimen (Fig. 8A) but mostly pinkish in the paratypes.
Craniodental characters: The skull is relatively robust, as in Lae. capensis, but less so than in Lae. stanleyi. In lateral profile, the cranium is distinctly straight, rising only gently up from the rostrum to the top of the braincase. An occipital ‘helmet’ is present but poorly developed, and the sagittal and lambdoidal crests are visible. The zygomatic arches are relatively robust (Fig. 7), as in Lae. capensis. The dentition in Lae. kirinyaga is typical of the genus, with I 2/3, C 1/1, P 1/3, M 2/3. In the upper tooth row, I 1 is unicuspid and I 2 is small, not reaching halfway up the length of I 1. The P 1 is absent, putting C in contact with P 2. The m 3 is myotodont sensu Van Cakenberghe & Happold (2013).
Biology: This species has been captured infrequently across the highlands of Kenya on both sides of the Rift Valley. It is present in wet tropical forest (e.g. Kakamega forest, with ~ 1900 mm of rainfall per annum), less mesic montane forest (Marsabit National Park) and relatively dry savanna woodlands (e.g. Lolldaiga Hills conservancy ~ 600 mm), hence aridity per se does not seem to be an important variable in its distribution. However, it has been recorded only at elevations> 1000 m (current records are all between 1160 and 1700 m), and this might be an important limit in its geographical distribution. We also include two specimens (FMNH 233035, 233036) from Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda (1180 m above sea level) in this new species. Two specimens from Ethiopia (identified as ‘ Neoromicia somalica ’ by Benda et al., 2016) also group with Lae. kirinyaga in the phylogeny, as does a specimen from Senegal (Koubínová et al., 2013), suggesting that this newly described species has a wide distribution north of the equator. We recommend, based on its relatively large distribution range and habitat preference, that it be listed as ‘Least Concern’ in the IUCN red list. However, we did not examine the specimens from Ethiopia and Senegal and therefore recommend a detailed morphological investigation before our hypothesis concerning the geographical range of this species is accepted. The type specimen echolocated at a peak frequency (start and end frequencies) of 44.9 kHz (74.3–41.6 kHz). The mean (± SD) peak frequency for 14 other individuals at the type locality was 43.9 ± 0.91 kHz (73.9 ± 9.43 to 41.8 ± 1.64 kHz).
description: Published as part of Monadjem, Ara, Demos, Terrence C, Dalton, Desire L, Webala, Paul W, Musila, Simon, Kerbis Peterhans, Julian C & Patterson, Bruce D, 2020, A revision of pipistrelle-like bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in East Africa with the description of new genera and species, pp. 1-33 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) 190 on pages 15-18, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa087, http://zenodo.org/record/4451420