A survey of small mammals in the Volta Region of Ghana with comments on zoogeography and conservation Author Decher, Jan Mammal Section, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn (Germany) and Department of Biology, University of Vermont. Burlington, Vermont 05405 (USA) j. decher @ leibniz-zfmk. de Author Norris, Ryan W. Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University at Lima, Lima, OH 45804 (USA) ryanwnorris @ gmail. com ryanwnorris@gmail.com Author Abedi-Lartey, Michael Golden Veroleum (Liberia) Inc., Monrovia Office: Unit 102, Wazni Building, 13 th Street and Tubman Boulevard, Sinkor, Monrovia (Liberia) Author Oppong, James Wildlife Division, Forestry Commission, P. O. Box M 239, Accra (Ghana) Author Hutterer, Rainer Mammal Section, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn (Germany) Author Weinbrenner, Martin Philosophenweg 12, 77654 Offenburg (Germany) Author Koch, Martin Department of Biogeography, University of Trier, Universitätsring 15, D- 54296 Trier (Germany) Author Podsiadlowski, Lars Mammal Section, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn (Germany) Author Kilpatrick, C. William Department of Biology, University of Vermont. Burlington, Vermont 05405 (USA) wkilpatr @ uvm. edu wkilpatr@uvm.edu text Zoosystema 2021 2021-05-20 43 14 253 281 journal article 6523 10.5252/zoosystema2021v43a14 b1eb9973-f581-4a60-9c87-68b7ae4b3591 1638-9387 4783781 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7008A933-FE5E-405E-BBAD-8C06D2A8807D Nycteris arge Thomas, 1903 Nycteris arge Thomas, 1903: 633 . COMMON NAME. — Bate’s Slit faced Bat. MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Apesokubi • 1 ♀ ; SMF 92126; 26.VIII.2001 . REMARK Although this bat is known from the Upper Guinea Region west of the Volta River and from central and southern Nigeria ( Happold 1987 ), it does not seem to have been recorded from the Volta Region, or in the Dahomey Gap. The closest records are two BMNH specimens from Akaniem (Akaniem, Buem) between the Volta and Oti River branches of presentday Lake Volta ( Grubb 1971 ). Van Cakenberghe & De Vree (1985) apparently list these specimens as being from “Akenim”, Togo . In Côte d’Ivoire , Fahr (1996) recorded six out of seven specimens of N. arge within the rainforest zone and one in forest-savanna mosaic. Our specimen of N. arge appears to be the first one reported from the Volta Region. CONSERVATION STATUS. — Although classified as a species of “Least Concern” on the IUCN Red List, as a mostly forest-dependent species, N. arge is of some conservation concern in the Ghana-Togo Highlands.