Pseudoromicia nyanza 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
Pseudoromicia
Pseudoromicia nyanza

description: PSEUDOROMICIA NYANZA MONADJEM, PATTERSON, WEBALA & DEMOS SP. NOV.
NYANZA SEROTINE
LSID: http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub: 71737F08-2938-4403-8385-5438B2E5EABE
Neoromicia tenuipinnis Patterson & Webala (2012).
Neoromicia tenuipinnis Musila et al. (2019).
Neoromicia tenuipinnis Rydell et al. (2020).
Holotype: FMNH 215626, field number BDP 5719. This specimen was collected on 8 January 2012 by Bruce D. Patterson, Paul W. Webala and Carl W. Dick. It is an adult male, formalin-fixed and preserved in ethanol. Its skull has been extracted and cleaned, its glans penis removed and the baculum stained and extracted. Muscle tissue was also preserved in liquid nitrogen at the time of capture. Type locality: Kisumu Impala Sanctuary, State Lodge Campsite, Kisumu County (formerly Nyanza province), Kenya, at an elevation of 1130 m above sea level; geographical coordinates: 0.10961°S, 34.74593°E (Fig. 1). The sanctuary borders both Lake Victoria and Kenya’s fifth largest city, Kisumu, and is only 0.34 km 2 in area. Vegetation consisted of open parkland, shortstatured trees and shrubs.
Paratypes: Four other individuals (FMNH 215625, FMNH 215627, FMNH 215628 and FMNH 215629), all females, were collected at the same location and on the same night as the holotype and closely resemble it genetically (Fig. 3B) and morphologically (Tables 5–7), qualifying them as paratypes.
Etymology: This species is named after the region where it was found, Nyanza, which derives from the Bantu word for ‘large body of water’. Covering nearly 60 000 km 2, Lake Victoria surely qualifies. The name is used as a noun in apposition.
Diagnosis: This is a medium-sized member of the genus Pseudoromicia, with a mean forearm length of 31.2 mm (Table 5) and greatest skull length of 12.96 mm (Table 6). It is genetically distinct from all other Pseudoromicia species (Fig. 3B). Furthermore, it is readily distinguished from the dark-winged members of this genus (Pse. roseveari, Pse. brunnea and Pse. kityoi) by its white wings. It can be distinguished from Pse. rendalli by its smaller size (mostly non-overlapping forearm length and craniodental measurements (Tables 5–7) and weakly bicuspid I 1 (unicuspid in Pse. rendalli). It is significantly larger than Pse. tenuipinnis, with hardly any overlapping external and craniodental measurements (Tables 5–7); furthermore, its dorsal fur is medium brown and bicoloured (dark brown and unicoloured in Pse. tenuipinnis). It is most like Pse. isabella in size and external appearance, but that species has rusty tips to the fur on its upper parts, whereas Pse. nyanza has white-tipped hairs. The taxon Eptesicus ater J. A. Allen, 1917, which was described from north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, is currently considered a synonym of Pse. tenuipinnis (Simmons, 2005) and is far smaller than Pse. nyanza, with a reported total length of 68 mm. Furthermore, Pse. tenuipinnis has ‘brownish black’ fur on its back (Allen et al., 1917), contrasting with the light-tipped fur of Pse. nyanza.
Description: External characters: Pseudoromicia nyanza is a medium-sized pipistrelle-like bat with white patagial and uropatagial membranes (Fig. 8B). The dorsal pelage is medium brown with white-tipped hairs over most of the back. The ventral hairs are pure white with a dark base. The ears are short and rounded, and the tragus is broad and truncated, as in Pse. tenuipinnis (Monadjem et al., 2013).
Craniodental characters: The skull is relatively gracile, as in Pse. tenuipinnis and Pse. isabella. In lateral profile, the cranium slopes gently up from the rostrum to the top of the braincase. There is no occipital ‘helmet’, and the sagittal and lambdoidal crests are absent. The zygomatic arches are fragile, as in Pse. tenuipinnis and Pse. isabella (Fig. 10). The dentition in Pse. nyanza 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 weakly but distinctly bicuspid and I 2 is moderate in size, slightly more than half 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: Judging by how frequently this species is captured, it is common west of the Rift Valley in Kenya (B. D. Patterson & P. W. Webala, personal observation). It seems to prefer forest-edge habitats and avoids the forest interior (Rydell et al., 2020,
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 23-24, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa087, http://zenodo.org/record/4451420