Rhinolophus andamanensis Dobson, 1872

Srinivasulu, Chelmala, Srinivasulu, Aditya, Srinivasulu, Bhargavi, Gopi, Asad, Dar, Tauseef Hamid, Bates, Paul J. J., Rossiter, Stephen J. & Jones, Gareth, 2017, Recent surveys of bats from the Andaman Islands, India: diversity, distribution, and echolocation characteristics, Acta Chiropterologica 19 (2), pp. 419-437 : 429

6. Rhinolophus andamanensis Dobson, 1872

Homfray’s Horseshoe Bat

New records

North Andaman Islands: Burmadera, Chalis Ek, Chipo, Interview Island, and Ramnagar; Middle Andaman Islands: Baratang Island; Little Andaman Island: Hut Bay and V.K. Pur.

Previous records

North Andaman Islands: Diglipur (ZSIK) and base of Saddle Peak (HZM); Middle Andaman Islands: Interview Island (ZSIK); South Andaman Islands: Mount Harriet (ZSIK).

Comments

Endemic to Andaman Islands. Sixty-five individuals were captured of which 22 specimens were collected from many locations throughout the Islands from North Andaman (the northernmost sighting was from Chipo) to Little Andaman Island. R. andamanensis was originally describ- ed as a distinct form, though Dobson (1872: 337) stated that it “resembles R. affinis , and may be referred to the same section of the genus”. Andersen (1905 a, 1905 b) observed that it might be the local representative of R. affinis on the islands. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) listed this taxon as a distinct species, though placing it under R. affinis . Sinha (1973) treated this taxon as a subspecies of R. affinis , but Bates and Harrison (1997) synonymized it with R. affinis . Srinivasulu and Srinivasulu (2012) listed it as a subspecies of R. affinis . Aul et al. (2014) misidentified this taxon as R. yunnanensis (we later inspected her collections and found them to be misidentified specimens of R. andamanensis ) and reported the sightings from Paget Island, East Island, Gandhinagar, Chalis Ek, and Saddle Peak in North Andaman Islands; Interview Island, Baratang Island, and Strait Island in Middle Andaman Islands, and Little Andaman Island. Though similar to R. yunnanensis in size, the aspects that visibly separate the two taxa are the presence of three grooves on the lower lip in R. andamanensis as opposed to presence of a single groove in R. yunnanensis , and characteristic differences in the shape of the sella. R. andamanensis is separate from R. affinis under which it has been synonymized, due to its morphometrics, COI gene sequence and echolocation characteristics.