Vespertilionidae
Author
Don E. Wilson
Author
Russell A. Mittermeier
text
2019
2019-10-31
Lynx Edicions
Barcelona
Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 9 Bats
716
981
book chapter
56755
10.5281/zenodo.6397752
45351c32-25dd-422c-bdb2-00e73deb4943
978-84-16728-19-0
6397752
273.
Nut-colored Yellow Bat
Scotophilus nux
French:
Scotophile noisette
/
German:
Nussfarbene Hausfledermaus
/
Spanish:
Scotofilo
castano
Other common names:
Dark House Bat
,
Nut-colored House Bat
,
Nux Yellow House Bat
Taxonomy.
Scotophilus nigrita nux Thomas, 1904
,
“Efulen,
Cameroons
[=
Cameroon
].”
Scotophilus nux
has been treated as a subspecies of
nigrita
(when
nigrita
was used for the species now called S.
dinganii
) or a subspecies of S.
leucogaster
. Based on multivariate analyses of forearm and cranial measurements, it is treated as a distinct species. Monotypic.
Distribution.
Patchily recorded in
Sierra Leone
,
Guinea
,
Liberia
,
Ivory Coast
,
Ghana
,
Nigeria
,
Cameroon
,
DR Congo
,
Uganda
, and
Kenya
; possibly
Equatorial Guinea
and
Gabon
.
Descriptive notes.
Head—body ¢.
67-89 mm
, tail
44-54 mm
, ear
15-19 mm
, hindfoot
13-15 mm
, forearm
53-61 mm
; weight
25-37 g
. Pelage is smooth, sleek, and glossy. Dorsum is rusty brown, dark rusty brown, or blackish brown; hairs are unicolored. Mid-dorsal hairs are
6-7 mm
. Venteris slightly paler and dark brown to reddish orange. Wings and uropatagium are blackish brown. Ears are dark brown, short, and separated; inner margin is strongly convex, with lobe at base; and outer margin is fairly straight, with semicircular fleshy antitragus. Tragus tapers to bluntly rounded tip, with anterior margin concave. Skull has well-developed sagittal crest and occipital helmet. Dorsal profile ofskull is slightly concave at rostrumand slopes gradually upward to occiput. Jaws and dentition are robust. I* is unicuspid; M' and M* have concave surfaces and indistinct ridges and appear worn; and M? is very short and has only two ridges. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 36 and FNa =
50 in
Cameroon
.
Habitat.
[Lowland rainforest and clearings.
Food and Feeding.
The Nut-colored Yellow Bat apparently forages over water.
Breeding.
Two Nut-colored Yellow Bats with one fetus each were recorded in March in
DR Congo
.
Activity patterns.
The Nut-colored Yellow Bat roosts in hollow trees and in small groups in roofs of houses. In western
Uganda
, echolocation calls had minimum frequency of 40-7 kHz, maximum frequency of 54-1 kHz, characteristic frequency of 43 kHz, frequency of the knee of 45-1 kHz, and duration of 2 milliseconds. In
Gabon
, mean minimum frequency was 38-5 kHz (37-8-40), mean maximum frequency was 59-5 kHz (52-5-75-8), mean dominant frequency was 44-5 kHz (41:1-47-4), mean duration was 1-9 milliseconds (1-6-2-5), and mean interpulse interval was 57-1 milliseconds (16-2-108-6).
Movements, Home range and Social organization.
No information.
Status and Conservation.
Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red Lust.
Bibliography.
Monadjem et al. (2011), Peereboom &
Van
Lieshout (2015), Robbins et al. (1985), Simmons (2005),
Van
Cakenberghe & Happold (20139).