Epomophorus minimus (Claessen et De Vreeı 1991)

Benda, P., Kasso, M., Nicolas, V., Pleurdeau, D., Stoetzel, E., Workalemahu, S., Bekele, A. & Denys, C., 2019, New data on bats from Dire Dawa regionı eastern Ethiopiaı with the first record of Rhinopoma microphyllum in the country, Journal of Natural History 53 (41), pp. 2579-2590 : 2583

Epomophorus minimus (Claessen et De Vreeı 1991) – least epauletted fruit bat

Material. 1 ♀ ad (DDW03), Dire Dawa, Fasika hotel garden, 09°36 ʹ N, 41°51 ʹ E, 1188 m a . s. l., 19/11/2017 . – 1 ♀ ad (DDW18), Dire Dawa, Toni Farm (Dire Dawa University ), 09°37 ʹ N, 41°50 ʹ E, 1156 m a. s. l., 19/11/2017.

Two females of the least epauletted fruit bat were caught at two sites within the Dire Dawa town. According to data by Claessen and De Vree (1991), the records from Dire Dawa area only slightly shift the known limits of the distribution range of this species to the north-east. In the surrounding areas of the eastern edge of the Chercher Mountains, E. minimus represents a regularly encountered fruit bat species; specimens were collected in the areas some 50 – 80 km south-east of Dire Dawa, at Harar, Errer Valley, and Babille ( Claessen and De Vree 1991; Lavrenchenko et al. 2010); Bahadu, the type locality of E. minimus , lies only some 145 km WNW of Dire Dawa.

External dimensions of the specimens collected in Dire Dawa are as follows (DDW03/ DDW18): weight 36/ 38 g, head and body length 95/ 109 mm, forearm length 60/ 65 mm, ear length 16/ 19 mm; skull dimensions (DDW03): largest skull length 31.12 mm, condylobasal length 29.86 mm, zygomatic width 17.98 mm, neurocranium width 12.96 mm, neurocranium height 9.81 mm, length of upper tooth-row 10.89 mm. The species identification based on the craniodental data comparison conforms to those given by Claessen and De Vree (1991, p. 219); the result of discriminant function counted from three cranial measurements is 47.5. In E. minimus this value should be below 116, while higher values indicate E. labiatus (Temminck, 1837) , which, however, is not known to occur in eastern Ethiopia or in Somalia ( Claessen and De Vree 1991; Lanza et al. 2015).