343.

Ussuri Tube-nosed Bat

Murina ussuriensis

French: Murine de I'Oussouri / German: Ussuri-Réhrennase / Spanish: Ratonero narizudo de Ussuri

Other common names: Lesser Tube-nosed Bat, Ussurian Tube-nosed Bat

Taxonomy. Murina ussuriensis Ogneyv, 1913,

Evseevka, Imansky district, Ussuri, southeastern Siberia, Russia.

See M. harrisoni . Race silvatica has often been treated as a separate species. Three subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution. M.u.ussuriensisOgnev,1913—RussianFarEastandNEChina(HeilongjiangandJi-lin);alsoKorea(subspeciesuncertain).

M.u.katerinaeKruskop,2005—SSakhalin; alsoKunashirI(possiblysilvatica).

M. u. silvatica Yoshiyuki, 1983 — much ofJapan including Rebun, Rishirito, Okushiri, Dogo, Tsushima, Iki, and OsumiIs.

Descriptive notes. Head—-body 40-49- 4 mm,tail 29-38- 5 mm, ear 10- 2-17 mm, hindfoot 8: 3-10 mm, forearm 27-35- 8 mm; weight 5-6 g. Fur is short, dense, and woolly; dorsally golden rufous to light grayish brown (hairs with dark gray base, brown middle band, and light reddish gray tip; guard hairs reddish in katerinae, dull and pale in wussuriensis); ventrally paler grayish white (hairs with dark gray base, pale gray tip). Dorsal pelage extends densely onto base of wings, whole uropatagium, thumbs, and feet. Face is sparsely haired except long protuberant nostrils, which are naked. Ears are short, broad, and rounded, with smoothly convex anterior margins, no notch on posterior margin, and a broadly rounded tip; tragus is long, narrow, and tapering toward pointed tip. Wing attaches to base offirst toe. Skull has rounded braincase; sagittal crest is usually absent or very weakly developed, lambdoidal crests well developed. I? is lateral to I’; P? is two-thirds the height of P* and one-third the crown area; upper molars lack a hypocone and last upper molar has reduced postparacrista and metastyle. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 44 and FNa = 50, 56, or 60 (Japan).

Habitat. Primarily temperate forested habitats. Known from temperate rainforest and other forests in Japan, and from high and low elevations across the islands, appearing to favor higher elevations.

Food and Feeding. Feeds on flying insects, often in forests. Details of diet unknown in the wild, but one was seen catching a dragonfly. In captivity, ate house flies ( Musca domestica), Coleoptera, and Orthoptera, consuming more than 3 g /day. When foraging, flies low and can hover; may glean insects off the ground. in captivity, observed flycatching.

Breeding. Births occur from late Mayto lateJuly, inJapan, with littersize of 1-2. A female with an infant was found in the same tree-cavity roost as eight infants at different stages of development. Females enter estrusin their first autumn and probably breed that same year. Males seemed to disperse more widely than females in Yakushima (85 bats studied), but in Hokkaido (28 bats studied) no strong population structure was detected; contrast ing environmental conditions may lead to different dispersal patterns in the two regions.

Activity patterns. Ussuri Tube-nosed Bats leave their roosts shortly after sunset to forage throughout the night. Adult females in a maternity colony in Yakushima left their roosts to forage 13-47 minutes after sunset with some volant young. Mothers were observed returning to the roost ¢.30 minuteslater, repeatedly hovering around the roost, landing, then leaving again throughout the night. During summer and autumn, bats roost at varioussites, including foliage (usually dead), tree cavities, under bark, on the ground, tree canopies, abandoned mines and tunnels, and buildings; when roosting in foliage, they tend to prefer larger leaves; one was seen under the frost cover on a chrysanthemum. They appearto prefer roosts close to the ground in foliage; however, maternity colonies seem to prefer to roost in tree canopies rather than close to the ground. While roosting during the day, they become torpid, with body temperature lowering nearly to ambient temperature: in Sapporo, Japan, torpid bats at the roost had body temperatures of 19-6°C, 16-9°C, and 17-2°C with ambient temperatures of 20-2°C, 17:-4°C, and 18:2°C, respectively. They hibernate from early December to late February, and will do so under snow. Snow hibernacula are generally pitshaped; the bat may land on the snow, dig a small depression less than 10 cm deep, and then be covered by snow. The species will also use tree-cavity roosts during winter. When hibernating, the bat typically curls into a small ball, pulling the uropatagium over face and wings. Calls are a steep FM sweep with average start frequency of 112-6 kHz (90-136-6 kHz), end frequency 50-7 kHz (44-9-58-4 kHz), peak frequency 86-3 (81:5-89-8 kHz), and duration 1-7 milliseconds (1-4-1 milliseconds) in Hokkaido, Japan. In Kyushu, Japan, average end frequency was 51-6 kHz (40-4-63-8 kHz) and peak frequency 61-9 kHz (52-69 kHz). In South Korea, average start frequencies were 114-8-133-4 kHz, end frequencies 41-2-51 kHz, peak frequencies 70-82-9 kHz, durations 1-6—4-7 milliseconds, and interpulse intervals 48-9-78.6 milliseconds.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Appears to roost solitarily, especially while hibernating, but during summer and autumn it can be found roosting in small groups of2-5 or alone. During breeding, females and their young form small maternity colonies. It switches roosts often, and maternity colonies may switch every day during summer.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCNRed List. Widespread but locally rare. One individual in north-east China was the first bat in Asia to test positive for the Pseudogymnoascus destructans fungus that causes White-nosed Syndrome.

Bibliography. Abe et al. (2005), Flanders et al. (2016), Fukui, Agetsuma & Hill (2004), Fukui, Hill, Kim Sun-Sook & Han Sang-Hoon (2015), Fukui, Hill & Matsumura (2012), Fukui, Maeda et al. (2005), Funakoshi, Nagaoka etal. (2009), Funakoshi, Tamari et al. (2016), Gorobeyko & Kartavtseva (2018), Harada et al. (1987a), Hirakawa (2006, 2007), Hirakawa & Fukui (2009), Hirakawa & Kawai (2006), Hirakawa & Kosaka (2009), Hirakawa & Nagasaka (2018), Hoyt et al. (2016), Jo Yeong-Seok et al. (2018), Kawaiet al. (2014), Koyanagi & Tsuji (2006), Kruskop (2005), Kuroda (1969), Maeda (1980), Matsuoka (2008), Nguyen Truong Son et al. (2015), Ohdachi et al. (2009), Smith & Xie Yan (2008), Sotnikov (2005), Tanioka (2016), Tsuchiya (1979), Tsytsulina (2008e), Yoshiyuki (1989), Yukawa (1966).