Mops (Mops) niveiventer Cabrera and Ruxton 1926

Mops (Mops) niveiventer Cabrera and Ruxton 1926, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 17: 594.

Type Locality: Dem. Rep. Congo, Kasai Occidental, Luluabourg (= Kananga).

Vernacular Names: White-bellied Free-tailed Bat.

Synonyms: Mops (Mops) chitauensis Hill 1937 .

Distribution: Dem. Rep. Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique. Records from Botswana and Madagascar are erroneous; Botswana records are now thought to represent condylurus while Madagascar records represent leucostigma (see Hayman and Hill [1971], Meester et al. [1986], and Peterson et al. [1995]).

Conservation: IUCN 2003 and IUCN / SSC Action Plan (2001) – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Mops . Clearly distinct from condylurus, see Ansell (1967), Hayman and Hill (1971), and Meester et al. (1986). Koopman (1993) suggested that niveiventer is possibly a subspecies of demonstrator . Reviewed in part by Van Cakenberghe et al. (1999).