Nycteris thebaica Geoffroy, 1818

Fig. 23 C–D

Nycteris Thebaicus E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1818: 119.

* Nycteris capensis Smith, 1829: 434 .

* Nycteris thebaica E. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 1818 .

As all recent authors, Bernard & Happold (2013c: 458) consider capensis to be a subspecies of N. thebaica, which is distributed over Tanzania, SE DRC and Zambia to Cape of Good Hope. As such, the records reported by Hayman et al. (1966: 34, map 27) from the northern provinces of Nord-Kivu and Ituri do not belong to this form. Furthermore, most of the specimens from Kateke River (RBINS 10813 to 10834) reported by Hayman et al. (1966: 34) as N. capensis were re-identified by Van Cakenberghe & De Vree (1985: 80) as N. macrotis . Most of the records reported here are from the eastern part of CRB (provinces Ituri, Nord- and South-Kivu, Haut-Lomami and Haut-Katanga in the DRC and in Rwanda). The only exception is a series of five specimens, collected by Brian Robbins in Yalosemba in Mongala Province.

The distribution of the species is primarily sub-saharan Africa, but also along the Atlantic coast up to Morocco and along the River Nile and part of the coast of the Red Sea up to the Mediterranean.