Hipposideros ater Templeton, 1848

Suyanto, Agustinus & Struebig, Matthew J., 2007, Bats of the Sangkulirang limestone karst formations, East Kalimantan - a priority region for Bornean bat conservation, Acta Chiropterologica 9 (1), pp. 67-95 : 77-80

Hipposideros ater Templeton, 1848

Dusky roundleaf bat

New material

1♂ ( MZB M26345 ); 2♀♀ ( MZB M26343 / 26368 ) .

Records from Borneo

Sabah: Danum Valley, Gomantong, Gunung Kinabalu, Madai, Segarong, Se- pilok, Sukau, Tabin (Yasuma and Andau, 2000). Sarawak: Bau limestone formations (Mohd-Azlan et al., 2005). WestKal: Gunung Palung NP (MZB20679). CenKal: Liang Hajuq-Sumber Barito, Liang Koliq (MZB); Barito Ulu Research Area (D. Pio, unpublished data). EastKal: Sungai Lesan PF (M. J. Struebig, unpublished data).

Comments

Variation in external appearance was evident for hipposiderids captured in Tabalar and Tintang formations resembling H. ater and H. cineraceus . According to Corbet and Hill (1992) and Hill (1963) H. ater can be distinguished from H. cineraceus by the internarial septum being slightly expanded at the base (rather than in the middle for H. cineraceus ). However, we found it difficult to consistently discriminate the two species by this feature especially since forearm lengths of Sangkulirang specimens also overlapped

3

TABLE 4 . Continued

with those reported from Sabah in Payne et al. (2000). The posterior noseleaf of indi- viduals we refer to as H. ater is much more ‘ruffled’ than that of H. cineraceus , which exhibits a ‘smooth’ posterior noseleaf as de- scribed in the literature. The skulls of Sang- kulirang H. ater specimens are also longer (CCL 15.4–15.9 mm) than the range de- scribed by Hill (1963), a single specimen from West Kalimantan (MZB20679 — CCL 14.8 mm), and eight specimens from Australia, India and Myanmar held at the HZM (CCL 13.3–14.2 mm). Specimens col- lected in Sabah could not be located in the NHM, and to our knowledge there are no other specimens from Borneo confirmed as H. ater available for study. Although H. ater is recorded from India to Australia ( Boitani et al., 2006), the taxonomy of this species, as well as other Hipposideros , is uncertain and there is much confusion in the litera- ture. It is very likely that specimens collect- ed in Borneo represent separate taxa from those elsewhere in the range. A systematic review of this genus is long overdue.