20.

Newton's Long-fingered Bat

Miniopterus newtoni

French: Minioptére de Sao Tomé / German: Newton-Langflligelfledermaus / Spanish: Minidptero de Newton

Other common names: Newton's Bent-winged Bat

Taxonomy. Miniopterus newtoni Bocage, 1889,

“St. Thomé [= Sao Tomé Island].”

Miniopterus newton: was previously considered a subspecies of M. minor . Monotypic.

Distribution. Endemic to Sao Tomé I.

Descriptive notes. Head—body 45 mm, tail 43 mm, ear 9-5-10 mm, hindfoot 9 mm, forearm 38-40 mm; weight 7 g. Newton's Long-fingered Bat has blackish gray dorsal and ventral pelage. There is also a reddish morph, although less abundant. It has narrow hairy edge along dorsal side of wing membrane in area between femur and humerus. Lower part of this membrane has few and sparse hairs, and uropatagium is hairless on both sides. Ears are small, and tragusis relatively long (4: 5 mm) and narrow, with rounded tip.

Habitat. Various habitats including non-altered forests and anthropogenic environments (e.g. cocoa plantations and around streetlights in urban areas) at elevations of 0-1300 m.

Food and Feeding. There is no specific information available for this species, but other long-fingered bats mainly eat soft insects captured in flight.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. Presumably nocturnal. It mainly roosts in caves but also mines and tunnels. Echolocation calls have downward FM signals, with maximum frequencies of 69-6-119 kHz, minimum frequencies of 47-8-52-2 kHz, peak frequencies of 53-2— 61 kHz, durations of 2-3-7-8 milliseconds, and intervals of 31-8-105-7 milliseconds.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Newton's LLong-fingered Bats form colonies with thousands of individuals and share roosts with other species of bats such as Noack’s Leaf-nosed Bat (Hipposideros ruber) and Temminck’s Myotis ( Myotis tricolor).

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. There is little information about population status, ecology, and distribution of Newton's Longfingered Bat, and conservation threats are unknown.

Bibliography. Bocage (1889), Juste & Ibanez (1992), Juste et al. (2007), Rainho et al. (2010).