Rhinolophus hildebrandtii Peters 1878

Monadjem, Ara, Schoeman, M. Corrie, Reside, April, P Io, Dorothea V., Stoffberg, Samantha, Bayliss, Julian, (Woody) Cotterill, F. P. D., Curran, Michael, Kopp, Mirjam & Taylor, Peter J., 2010, A recent inventory of the bats of Mozambique with documentation of seven new species for the country, Acta Chiropterologica 12 (2), pp. 371-391 : 378

Rhinolophus hildebrandtii Peters 1878

This species was recorded at eight sites in southern, central and northern Mozambique. A large colony was discovered in a cave system in the Cheringoma plateau (Appendix I). Peak echolocation frequencies ranged between 35–40 kHz (ANABAT, Pettersson D240x, n = 15). Variable peak echolocation frequencies for R. hildebrandtii populations have previously been recorded in Southern Africa ( Monadjem et al., 2010). For example, calls recorded in South Africa have intermediate peak frequencies of ≈ 33 kHz at Sudwala caves and ≈ 44 kHz at Pafuri, in the Kruger National Park ( Schoeman and Jacobs, 2008; M. C. Schoeman, unpublished data). At Lutope Gorge, just south of Sengwa in Zimbabwe, 17 individuals with peak frequencies of ≈ 37 kHz and one with 46 kHz were captured and recorded ( Taylor et al., 2005). Based on the analysis of two mtDNA genes (cytochrome b and control region), two divergent lineages of R. hildebrandtii are present in Mozambique (referred to as Clade1 and Clade 2 in Table 2 ), one comprising smaller-sized individuals occurring in savanna habitats at lower elevations (Namapa, Niassa Game Reserve, Gerhard’s Cave — Clade 2) and another comprising large-sized individuals from montane habitats (Mounts Mabu and Inago — Clade 1) (P. J. Taylor, S. Stoffberg, A. Monadjem, F. P. D. Cotterill, and M. C. Schoeman, unpublished data). These two forms are morphologically distinct as shown by the non-overlap between them in most cranial measurements ( Table 2 ).

Field measurements: For the low elevation taxon, FA (adult male) 63.3 ± 1.40 (60.1–65.2, 12); Bm (adult male) 30.9 ± 2.57 (28.0–34.5, 12); FA (adult female) 62.2 ± 2.16 (59.6–64.6, 4); Bm (adult female) 27.88 ± 5.04 (23.5–34.0, 4). Mean nose-leaf width was 14.36 ± 0.49 for males (n = 12) and 14.35 ± 0.72 for the females (n = 4). For two females from Mounts Mabu and Inago (montane form), mean FA was 67.5 (66–69) mm. Nose-leaf width for these two females was 15.0 and 15.1 mm.