Myonycteris torquata (Dobson, 1878)

Fig. 8 C–D

Cynonycteris torquata Dobson, 1878: 71, 76.

* Myonycteris wroughtoni Andersen, 1908: 450 .

Bergmans (1976) reviewed the genus Myonycteris and referred to Eisentraut (1963) and Brosset (1966a, b), who suggested that wroughtoni should be considered a subspecies of M. torquata, a view that was followed by Hayman & Hill (1971), Jones (1971) and Koopman (1975, 1994). Bergmans (1976: 203–204) found that wroughtoni differs from torquata mainly in its somewhat larger greatest skull and forearms lengths and by a larger relative M 2 length, and concluded that these differences are insufficient to warrant a subspecific division.

Hayman et al. (1966: 29, map 16) reported a total of nine specimens, all from the northeastern part of the DRC: provinces of Bas-Uélé, Haut-Uélé and Nord-Kivu. We were able to find data for 583 specimens from almost all over the DRC. The map provided by Thomas & Henry (2013c: 275) is quite different as they do not mention M. torquata from the provinces of Tshopo and Tshuapa. The reason for this is probably the extremely recent nature of the collections: from 2010 onwards, although the species was previously reported from Kisangani (Tshopo Province) by Ifuta et al. (1987: 113).