Chironax melanocephalus Temminck, 1825

Voon-Ching Lim, Rosli Ramli, Subha Bhassu & John-James Wilson, 2017, A checklist of the bats of Peninsular Malaysia and progress towards a DNA barcode reference library, PLoS ONE 12 (7), pp. 1-65 : 6-7

Chironax melanocephalus Temminck, 1825 ]

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Pteropus melanocephalus Temminck, 1825: 190 ; Gunung Karang , Bantam, west Java, INDONESIA (Collector unknown; Type unknown) [ 58].

Chironax melanocephalus [ 9].

Common English name: Black-capped Fruit Bat

Barcode Index Number: BOLD:ACG2580 (1 DNA barcode from Peninsular Malaysia;

Fig 2 )

Remarks: Sing et al. [ 5] first reported that a DNA barcode collected at Ulu Gombak, shared 95.8% similarity with DNA barcodes of Chironax melanocephalus from Java, Indonesia ( Fig 2 ). The DNA barcodes from Java are likely to represent C. melanocephalus sensu stricto as they were collected from type locality and are assigned to a different BIN (BOLD:AAE9045). Whether several forms of Chironax occur in Peninsular Malaysia remains to be determined. Two distinct morphotypes of C. melanocephalus sensu lato were recently described from Sumatra, Indonesia, neither matching with either of the currently recognised subspecies: C. m. melanocephalus and C. m. tumulus [ 59]. No DNA barcodes were provided for these specimens but it remains possible that the taxon in Peninsular Malaysia is one of these putative species.

IUCN status: Least Concern

Recorded at: Selangor: Ulu Gombak [ 5, 52, 54], Bukit Kutu Wildlife Reserve [ 51], Sungai Dusun Forest Reserve [ 56]; Pahang: Cameron Highland [ 23, 60], Krau Wildlife Reserve [ 11], Fraser Hill Forest Reserve [ 56]; Perak: Royal Belum State Park [ 48], Bayor River-Rantau Panjang [ 49]; Johor: Endau Kluang Forest Reserve [ 56]; Kedah: Ulu Muda Forest Reserve [ 57];

Kelantan: Air Panas-Gua Musang [ 61], Gunung Chamah [ 62].

C. melanocephalus is common in lowland, hill and montane forests where the species roosts in large colonies in caves and rock shelters but in smaller groups in tree ferns [ 11, 14, 23].

Figures

Fig 2. Neighbour-joining tree showing all available DNA barcodes for species in family Pteropodidae reported from Peninsular Malaysia. The percentage of pseudoreplicate trees (±70%) in which the DNA barcodes clustered together in the bootstrap test (500 pseudoreplicates) are shown above the branches. Abbreviation as follows: PM = Peninsular Malaysia, VN = Vietnam, JV = Java, Indonesia, BN = Borneo (including Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan), TH = Thailand, LA = Laos. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179555.g002