Aziz SA, Clements GR, McConkey KR, Sritongchuay T, Pathil S, Yazid MNHA, Campos-Arceiz A, Forget P-M, Bumrungsri, S. 2017.  Pollination by the locally endangered island flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus) enhances fruit production of the economically important durian (Durio zibethinus). Ecol Evol. 2017;00:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3213

From Tigga: You can read the press release from RIMBA (which has some great photos) here.

Rhinolophus francisi (photo Pipat Soisook)

A team of international network of researchers describes a new species of woolly horseshoe bat from Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand). The new species is described from specimens in museums world-wide including a 32 years old spirit specimen.

The study (led by SEABCRU member Pipat Soisook) is one of many output of an international collaborative network of researchers in different 11 institutions based in six different countries. The paper is published in the latest issue of Acta Chiropterologica.

The first specimen of the new species was collected at around 1600 m on Gunung Trus Madi in Sabah, Malaysia, by Charles M. Francis in 1983. This specimen is kept in the Natural History Museum, London after since and was being regarded as a ‘melanistic’ Rhinolophus trifoliatus until this study. Together with additional specimens from Kalimantan, Indonesia and from Thailand, researchers, by using morphological, acoustic and genetic data, reveal that they are a new species to science. The new species then is named ‘Rhinolophus francisi’ to honor C. M. Francis for his great contribution in Southeast Asian bat taxonomy.

The new species is currently known only from Sabah, Kalimantan in Borneo and Ratchaburi Province, W. Thailand. A single specimen from Thailand is described as a different subspecies, namely ‘Rhinolophus francisi thailandicus’ or Thailand’s Wooly Horseshoe Bat’. Anyway the authors mentioned that additional specimens from Thailand may prove that this Thai subspecies is a distinct species, and future surveys in forest habitats of mainland Southeast Asia may reveal that it is actually widespread in the region.

Soisook, P., Struebig, M. J., Noerfahmy, S., Bernard, H., Maryanto, I., Chen, S. F., Rossiter, S. J., Kuo, H. C., Deshpande, K., Bates, P. J. J., Sykes, D. and Miguez, R. P. (2015) DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF THE RHINOLOPHUS TRIFOLIATUS-GROUP (CHIROPTERA: RHINOLOPHIDAE) FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA. Acta Chiropterologica, 17(1): 21–36

Glischropus aquilus (photo Joe Chun-Chia Huang)

They have typical Pipistrellus appearance but are characterized by the thickened pads at the base of thumbs. They roost in bamboo stalks but are not the flat-headed Tylonycteris of Southeast Asia nor the funnel-eared Kerivoula of Taiwan. The genus Glischropus is a group of small vespertilionid bats endemic to the Indo-Malayan region. Three species have been recognized, including G. bucephalus earlier described by Dr Gábor Csorba of the Hungarian Nature History Museum (HNHM) in 2013. However, this month, Dr Csorba, Tamás Görföl (HNHM), and four SEABCRU committee bring exciting news of another new Glischropus species. Based on morphological and genetic evidence, Glischropus aquilus, the fourth member of the genus, is reported from southwestern Sumatra of Indonesia. The bat is named for its dark coloration, which distinguishes the species from its three congeners. This finding brings the count of bats to 88 species for Sumatra and 222 species for Indonesia. The project is supported by a collaboration between four museums of four countries, highlighting the significance of SEABCRU taxonomic network. Thumb-pads up!

Original Citation: Gábor Csorba, Tamás Görföl, Sigit Wiantoro, Tigga Kingston, Paul J. J. Bates, and Joe Chun-Chia Huang. Thumb-pads up—a new species of thick-thumbed bat from Sumatra (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae: Glischropus). Zootaxa 3980 (2): 267–278. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3980.2.7

Original Citation: Natalie Weber, Prateep Duengkae, Jakob Fahr, Dina K. N. Dechmann, Patcharakiti Phengsakul, Wachirapon Khumbucha, Boripat Siriaroonrat, Supaporn Wacharapluesadee, Pattarapol Maneeorn, Martin Wikelski, and Scott Newman. 2015. High resolution GPS tracking of Lyle’s Flying Fox between temples and orchards in Central Thailand. Journal of Wildlife Management, DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.904.

Thet Thet & Khin Mya Mya (2015) Harvesting the guano of insectivorous bats: is it sustainable? Journal of Threatened Taxa 7: 7296-7297.

Abstract A three year study of the weight of guano removed from a single cave in Myanmar, from which guano has been extracted for over forty years, indicates that such harvesting is sustainable. The cave is occupied by an estimated 200,000 bats, mostly Tadarida plicata. An annual licence is issued by the Forestry Department to a single family which extracted an average of 36 tons of guano each year from 2003 to 2005. The guano is transported 350 km to Lake Inle where it is sold to fertilise tomatoes.

SPECIAL NOTE FROM TIGGA: This is the first publication to arise from the publishing workshop embedded within the SEABCRU Bat Conservation Workshop at the University of Mandalay in August 2014. CONGRATULATIONS from all at SEABCRU to Thet Thet and Khin Mya Mya in bringing this to completion, and a special thanks to Paul Racey for liaising with the journal. I look forward to many more publications featuring the great work being done in Myanmar!

Mounted bats in the tourist markets of Ho Chi Minh City — sadly just the tip of the iceberg (photo Benjamin Lee)

A frequent traveller browsing the tourist shops and markets of Southeast Asia and East Asia will invariably be introduced to many bats, although very dead and mounted. How are such bats collected in the wild and in what numbers? What is the volume of internet trade involving such souvenirs? The harvest of bats for the mounted souvenir trade involves no less than 10 species and the most iconic species used in the souvenir market is the woolly painted bat (Kerivoula picta) – a small bat prized for its bizarre colours. The continued harvest of this species and others could be detrimental to their wild populations, exacerbated by other threats such as habitat loss and disturbance.

My personal interest in the wildlife trade prompted me to write a short communication with a few SEABCRU members after a trip to south Vietnam last year to highlight the sale of bat souvenirs and the urgent need to investigate its sustainability. The article can be read here:

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9625794&fulltextType=NW&fileId=S0030605315000034

Benjamin P. Y-H. Lee, Matthew J. Struebig, Stephen J. Rossiter and Tigga Kingston (2015). Increasing concern over trade in bat souvenirs from South-east Asia. Oryx 49(2): 204.

Personally, I’d rather not be bitten by Hipposideros diadema (photo Tigga Kingston)

This was the title Julie and I did not use in the outreach promoting her paper looking at bite force in 35 species of Malaysian bats (we talked about dogs instead). If you said Hipposideros diadema,  you really need to read the paper, and if you said the Kerivoula you probably intuitively got the main finding of the paper, that how hard a bat bites scales with size. However, the relationships between size and bite force differ across families and mechanical advantage plays a role independent of size. There is a very nice general public summary that Julie put together here (scroll down until you see Julie with a Cheiromeles :-))

For those interested in the use of collections for ecological research, the paper provides regression equations for the major families (Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, Vespertilionidae) that can be used to estimate bite force from skull parameters and even field measures (body mass and forearm length).

Juliana Senawi, Daniela Schmieder, Bjorn Siemers and Tigga Kingston (2015). Beyond size – morphological predictors of bite force in a diverse insectivorous bat assemblage from Malaysia. Functional Ecology doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12447

You can email Julie or myself for a pdf.

“Its me again .. Eonycteris spelaea pollinator extraordinaire!” (photo T. Kingston)

Further documentation of just how wonderful Eonycteris spelaea is with a new paper out this month in the Journal of Pollination Ecology.  Pushpa Raj Acharya is the lead author, and here is a wonderful write-up on the history of Eonycteris spelaea studies and the significance of the study taken directly from the Journal’s press release:

“One of Paul Racey’s first duties as a new lecturer in the University of Aberdeen in 1974 was to act as internal examiner for Anthony Start’s PhD thesis on the ecology of Eonycteris spelaea in peninsula Malaysia. Start had made the intriguing discovery of mangrove (Sonneratia) pollen in the faeces of Eonycteris in a roost 38km from the nearest mangrove swamp, providing convincing evidence of long distance foraging. Forty years later, Racey’s former PhD student and now Professor, Sara Bumrungsri has revealed the critical role of Eonycteris in pollinating Durio and Parkia, with crop values of USD 137 million in Southern Thailand, crucial to local livelihoods. Pushpa Raj Acharya, a Nepali who had already co-authored a monograph on the bats of Nepal, won a scholarship to carry out research for a PhD by Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai and used radiotracking to study the foraging behavior of Eonycteris. He showed that the bats moved up to 8 km between patches of durian and by transferring pollen between patches, were the main agents of cross pollination. A major concern is the conservation status of Eonycteris, colonies of which live in caves, but the numbers of bats in these colonies are decreasing as a result of hunting and disturbance. Durian fruit set is as low as 0 -1.4% in orchards where bats are not seen foraging. The message is clear: no bats – no durian! ”

Pushpa Raj Acharya, Paul A Racey, Sunthorn Sotthibandhu, Sara Bumrungsri (2015). Feeding behavior of the dawn bat (Eonycteris spelaea) promotes cross pollination of economically important plants in Southeast Asia. Journal of Pollination Ecology 15: 44-50.

You can get a copy from Pushpa — email him at pushpa underscore psu at yahoo dot com

Eudiscoderma thongareeae (photo Pipat Soisook)

A team of international scientists, led by two SEABCRU members, Dr. Pipat Soisook (Prince of Songkla University, Thailand) and Dr. Paul Bates (Harrison Institute, UK), discovered a new genus and species of false vampire. The new bat, namely Eudiscoderma thongareeae, is the sixth member of a small family Megadermatidae. It is named to reflect its disc-liked noseleaf and to honor Ms Siriporn Thongaree, the retired, former head of the Halabala Wildlife Research Station where the bat was found.

The species is very rare and only known from 3 specimens collected from a small area. The finding suggests how little we know about biodiversity, particularly in the forest areas of SE Asia.

The paper describing the new bat is published in the latest issue of Zootaxa. A copy of the full text pdf can be requested from the author, e-mail; pipat66@gmail.com

Pipat Soisook, Amorn Prajakjitr, Sunate Karapan, Charles M. Francis & Paul J. J. Bates (2015). A new genus and species of false vampire (Chiroptera: Megadermatidae) from peninsular Thailand. Zootaxa 3931 (4): 528-550.

A complicated chap — Rhinolophus affinis from Malaysia. Photo Tigga Kingston

The Intermediate Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis) is one of the most common cave species using constant frequency (CF) calls in Southeast Asia. In the past, variations of morphology and echolocation calls within the species have been observed among different geographic populations. However, the patterns of intra-specific variations across its extent and phylogeographic relationships among traits had not been not been fully explored. Cambodian researcher, Mr. Saveng Ith, led research on the geographic variation of R. affinis in mainland Southeast Asia. With morphological data, the researchers validated the two named subspecies in the region and reported a third form from Vietnam and Myanmar. Echolocation calls also show high variation in peak frequency but the divergence cannot be correlated with morphological form nor maternal lineages. The mismatches between the three traits in this study pose further questions on how CF bat species shape their morphology and echolocation.

The findings are published in the latest issue of Zoological Studies by Saveng and his collaborators, including another seven SEABCRU associates.

Original Citation: Saveng Ith, Sara Bumrungsri, Neil M Furey, Paul JJ Bates, Monwadee Wonglapsuwan, Faisal Ali Anwarali Khan, Vu Dinh Thong, Pipat Soisook, Chutamas Satasook and Nikky M Thomas. Taxonomic implications of geographical variation in Rhinolophus affinis (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) in mainland Southeast Asia. Zoological Studies, 54(31): p 1-29.