Myopterus whitleyi (Scharff, 1900)

Cakenberghe, Victor Van, Tungaluna, Guy-Crispin Gembu, Akawa, Prescott Musaba, Seamark, Ernest & Verheyen, Erik, 2017, The bats of the Congo and of Rwanda and Burundi revisited (Mammalia: Chiroptera), European Journal of Taxonomy 382 (382), pp. 1-327 : 70

Myopterus whitleyi (Scharff, 1900)

Fig. 31 C–D

Mormopterus Whitleyi Scharff, 1900: 569 .

* Myopterus whitleyi (Scharff, 1900) .

Hayman et al. (1966: 68, map114) reported M. whitleyi from three localities: Léopoldville (= Kinshasa, Kinshasa City Province), Luluabourg (= Kananga, Kasaï Central Province) and Beno (Mai-Ndombe Province), all in the southwestern part of the DRC. Additional specimens were collected in the Kikwit area (Kwilu Province) and in Banana (Kongo Central Province), also in the southwestern part of the DRC. One further specimen, however, was collected in the northeastern part of the DRC: 10 km N of Kasenye (Ituri Province). Aellen (1952: 99) reported the species from Coquilhatville (= Mbandaka, Equateur Province), but that record could not be traced. The distribution map presented by Fahr (2013j: 478) shows two red areas: one encompassing the southwestern DRC records (except for Banana, which is plotted separately) and a second in coastal Nigeria / Cameroon (from the mouth of the Niger to the Mount Cameroon area). Furthermore, he plotted single localities in Ghana, the Central African Republic, Gabon, and Uganda. The SDM map looks very similar, although it doesn’t reach Ghana, as we were unable to trace the specific locality for that country. The map also suggests that M. whitleyi does not occur in the Congolian rainforest, but encircles it both on the north and the south, and the two branches meet again in the Ugandan-Tanzanian border area.

Figures

Fig. 31. Distribution maps. A–B. Myopterus daubentonii Desmarest, 1820. C–D. Myopterus whitleyi (Scharff, 1900). E–F. Otomops martiensseni (Matschie, 1897). A, C, E. Distribution in the CRB area. B, D, F. Pan-African distribution.