A review of bat research in Thailand with eight new species records for the country
Author
Bumrungsri, Sara
Department of Biology, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand, 90112 E-mail: sara. b @ psu. ac. th
Author
Harrison, David L.
Harrison Institute, Bowerwood House, 15 St Botolph’s Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN 13 3 AQ, Great Britain
Author
Satasook, Chutamas
Department of Biology, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand, 90112 E-mail: sara. b @ psu. ac. th
Author
Prajukjitr, Amorn
Department of Biology, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand, 90112 E-mail: sara. b @ psu. ac. th
Author
Thong-Aree, Siriporn
Peat Swamp Forest and Hala-Bala Wildlife Research Station, P. O. 6, Wang, Narathiwat, Thailand, 90160
Author
Bates, Paul J. J.
Harrison Institute, Bowerwood House, 15 St Botolph’s Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN 13 3 AQ, Great Britain
text
Acta Chiropterologica
2006
2006-12-01
8
2
325
359
journal article
21492
10.3161/1733-5329(2006)8[325:arobri]2.0.co;2
91cacb4e-dc01-4157-af9a-ebdc303ce86f
1733-5329
3944593
Myotis hermani
Thomas 1923
Herman’s bat
Myotis hermani
Thomas 1923: 252
; Sabang, north- west Sumatra.
New Material
PSU-M 05.1 (field no. SB040509.17),
♀
,
9 May 2004
,
Khuan Kaowang Forest Park
,
Rattaphum
District,
Songkhla
Prov- ince,
07°00’00”N
,
100°15’54”E
, collected
by
Dorothea Pio
and
Teunchitr Sritong- choy.
Taxonomic Notes
The recent specimen from
Thailand
, with a forearm length of 60.0 mm (
Table 4
) and a condylo-canine length of
19.1 mm
(
Table 5
), agrees in size and morphology with the
holotype
of
M. hermani
from Sumatra (
61 mm
and
19.5 mm
, respective- ly). It is significantly larger than
Myotis formosus
(FA:
44.5–49.1 mm
,
n
= 5 and
FIG. 2. A general view of part of Hala Forest and six bat species new to the fauna of Thailand: A —
Hipposideros ridleyi
, B —
Myotis hermani
, C —
Murina suilla
,
D —
Murina aenea
, E —
Kerivoula pellucida
,
F —
Mops
mops
CCL:
16.3–16.6 mm
,
n
= 4; measurements listed in
Bates and Harrison, 1997
), which is the only other species of Asian
Myotis
cur- rently included in the subgenus
Chryso- pteron
(sensu
Corbet and Hill, 1992
). Size apart, it shares most of the external charac- ters exhibited by
M. formosus
. It has con- spicuously orange (of various hues) and black parti-coloured wings and interfemoral membrane (
Fig. 2b
). The ears are dark or- ange with black edges and have a concavity on the posterior border. The feet are not greatly enlarged. The hair roots are buff coloured and the tips orange, the latter frost- ed with black on both the dorsal and ventral aspects. Black frosting is not present in specimens of
M. formosus
seen from the Indian Subcontinent (
Bates and Harrison, 1997
) but the colouration is closely similar to that of an individual identified as
M. wa- tasei
(=
M. formosus
sensu
Corbet and Hill, 1992
;
Simmons, 2005
), a photograph of which is included in
Lin
et al
. (2004)
. The skull and dentition are comparable to those of
M. formosus
(for details see
Bates and Harrison, 1997
) in all aspects except for their considerably larger size.
Findley (1972)
included
hermani
as a synonym of
M. formosus
, a view subse- quently followed by
Koopman (1993)
. How- ever,
Corbet and Hill (1992)
argued that the size of
M. hermani
supports its specific dis- tinction, a view supported by the discovery of this recent specimen in
Thailand
. As such,
M. hermani
and
M. formosus
are here considered to be two distinct species.
Distribution and Ecological Notes
This is the first record from
Thailand
and appears to be the first confirmed record of this bat since it was described from a single adult female collected from north-west Sumatra (
Thomas, 1923
).
The recent specimen, a mature fema- le, was captured in a mist net set over a seasonal small stream (
5 m
wide) in Khuan Kaowang Forest Park. The capture site was on the edge of secondary tropical lowland rain forest (ca. 350 ha at 100–200 m a.s.l.), which is characterized by many large standing trees and a dense shrub layer. It appeared that the bat, which was caught at 20:00 hours at a height of
1.5 m
, was travelling from the forest to an area of rubber plantations and dry scrub woodland. Its body was covered with a
3 mm
layer of fat. Possibly this was an energy reserve for the breeding period.