The species list for Cambodia continues to climb! Recent surveys and morphological reviews of collections have added five new records, bringing the current count to 66 species. The new records are of Macroglossus minimus, Pipistrellus paterculus, P. javanicus, Hypsugo cadornae and Miniopterus pusillus.
Neil M Furey, Phauk Sophany, Phen Sarith, Chheang Sarak, Ith Saveng, Paul JJ Bates and Gabor Csorba (2012). New country records for five bat species (Chiroptera) from Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2: 141-149.
There is also a nice article from FFI on Neil's work in Cambodia working with FFI and Royal University of Phnom Phen on the Biodiversity Conservation Masters.
 Furey et al_2012_New country records for five bat species from Cambodia.pdf | [ ] | 364 Kb |
Paracoelops megalotis was only known from the original description of the single holotype. Over the past decades, the species was treated as a monotypic genus endemic to Vietnam, and received much attention from bat specialists worldwide. Particularly, it had appeared as a mammal mystery. In fact, Paracoelops and P. megalotis were named from a misclassification of an incomplete specimen of Pomona Leaf-nosed Bat (Hipposideros pomona). Vu Dinh Thong from Vietnam together with his colleagues from England, France, Germany and Ireland have resolved this mystery in a paper recently published in the journal Zootaxa.
Vu Dinh Thong, Christian Dietz, Annette Denzinger, Paul J.J. Bates, Sebastien J. Puechmaille, Cecile Callou, and Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler. 2012. Resolving a mammal mystery: the identity of Paracoelops megalotis (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae). Zootaxa 3505: 75–85.
For a copy of the paper, please contact the corresponding author Vu Dinh Thong: thong(at)iebr.ac.vn
Congratulations to Sigit Wiantoro, Ibnu Maryanto and Mohd Tajuddin b Abdullah on their recent publication in Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science (JTAS). Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses clearly indicate that populations of the widespread Myotis muricola either side of the Wallace Line are sufficiently divergent to be considered separate species, and are sister taxa to M. mystacinus.
The article can be downloaded here, and the Pertanika JTAS press release is attached
Wiantoro, S., Maryanto, I. and Abdullah M. T. (2012). Phylogeny and phylogeography of Myotis muricola (Gray, 1946) (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the West and East of Wallace's Line inferred from partial mtDNA cytochrome b gene. Pertanika J. Trop. Agric. Sci 35 (2): 271-292.
| JTAS Press Release.pdf | [ ] | 256 Kb |
A new Pteropodidae species was recently described from southwestern Sulawesi, Indonesia, by SEABCRU members, Dr. Ibnu Maryanto and Mr. Sigit Wiantoro, and their colleagues in Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense. Thoopterus suhaniahae, a median-sized fruit bat, was formerly regarded as a variation of T. nigrescens, but distinguished from its sympatric sibling by larger body size and several morphological traits, including the microstructures of penis in male bats. The species was named after Suhaniah, the wife of Mohamad Yani, which was a coauthor to this paper. “The finding of the new fruit bat species indicates again that the significance of Sulawesi as a hotspot of Pteropodidae in Southeast Asia.” said by Dr. Maryanto, who led this study of the new species.
Source: Ibnu Maryanto, Mohamad Yani, Siti Nuramaliati Prijono and Sigit Wiantoro . 2012. A new species of fruit bat (Megachiroptera: Pteropodidae: Thoopterus) from Sulawesi and adjacent islands, Indonesia. RECORDS OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, Vol. 27: 68-84.
Source: Jakarta Globe online (In English)
Source: KOMPAS online (In Bahasa Indonesian)
http://biologi.lipi.go.id/bio_indonesia/mTemplate.php?h=3&id_berita=421
| Ibnu_RecWAM_2012_27(1)_Thoop.pdf | [ ] | 651 Kb |
The genus Cynopterus, known as the short-nosed fruit bats or dog-faced fruit bats, is widely distributed throughout the Indo-Malayan region of Southeast Asia. Discriminating between species in this genus is rather difficult, and is further complicated by the fact that many species represent a complex of species with lacking information regarding status and distribution. One such species is Cynopterus brachyotis which is represented by two forms: C. brachyotis and C. cf. brachyotis Forest. Differentiation between these 2 forms has typically depended on measures of forearm length, but as Jayaraj et al. (2012) point out, many researchers choose different length values as the cut-off between forms. Thus Jayaraj et al. developed a classification function based on detailed morphometric variation useful for discriminating between 2 forms of Cynopterus brachyotis. Results indicate that C. brachyotis can be identified based on its brown fur that has a pronounced yellowish or reddish tinge and a forearm length greater than 60 mm. Conversely, C. cf. brachyotis Forest has a smaller body size with duller coloration and a forearm length less than 60 mm. Of the 28 morphometrics characters examined, 5 were considered useful for validating identification of museum specimens: forearm length (RL), 3rd molar tooth crown width and length (M3W, M3L), and 3rd digit metacarpal length and 2nd phalanx length (D3MCL, D3P1L). Jayaraj et al. conclude that the 2 forms of C. brachyotis are morphologically distinct, which is congruent with previous results using molecular methods.
Jayarak, V.K, Laman, C.J. and M.T. Abdullah. 2012. A predictive model to differentiate the fruit bats Cynopterus brachyotis and C. cf. brachyotis Forest (Chiroptera: Pteorpididae) from Malaysia using multivariate analysis. Zoological Studies 51: 259-271.
| Jayaraj et al. 2012 model for C brachyotis.pdf | [ ] | 531 Kb |