Rhinolophus blasii Peters, 1867

Cakenberghe, Victor Van, Tungaluna, Guy-Crispin Gembu, Akawa, Prescott Musaba, Seamark, Ernest & Verheyen, Erik, 2017, The bats of the Congo and of Rwanda and Burundi revisited (Mammalia: Chiroptera), European Journal of Taxonomy 382 (382), pp. 1-327 : 34-36

Rhinolophus blasii Peters, 1867

Fig. 14 E–F

Rhinolophus blasii Peters, 1867: 17 .

* Rhinolophus blasii empusa (Andersen, 1904: 378) .

In the CRB region, this species is represented by a single specimen from Moba, Tanganyika Province. Happold (2013f: 312) mentions that R. blasii empusa occurs from the southern DRC to the former Transvaal ( RSA). The map she presents also indicates that the Pan-African distribution for R. blasii contains three centres of gravity: one in the southern half of Africa, starting in the southern DRC and Tanzania to the northeastern part of the RSA; a second one in Ethiopia and a third north of the Sahara in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Based on SDM data, we suspect that there might be a connection between the southern and the eastern areas, but the connection towards the Maghrabian populations doesn’t seem to be straightforward. This might warrant further investigation to confirm the specific relation between these two separate areas.

Happold (2013f: 313) also plotted a second specimen in the neighbourhood of Likasi (Haut-Katanga Province), but that specimen could not be traced.

Figures

Fig. 14. Distribution maps. A–B. Lavia frons (E. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 1810). C–D. Rhinolophus alcyone Temminck, 1852. E–F. Rhinolophus blasii Peters, 1867. A, C, E. Distribution in the CRB area. B, D, F. Pan-African distribution.