45.

New Guinea Pipistrelle

Pipistrellus angulatus

French: Pipistrelle anguleuse / German: Neu-Guinea-Zwergfledermaus / Spanish: Pipistrela de Nueva Guinea

Other common names: Angulate Pipistrelle

Taxonomy. Vesperugo angulatus Peters, 1880,

“Insula Papuana, ‘Duke of York’ [Islands],” East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea.

Pipustrellus angulatus has been included under P. tenuis, but it and subspecies ponceleti are considered distinct species based on morphology. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution.

P.a. angulatus Peters, 1880 - E New Guinea and Biak-Supiori, Mioko, Manus, Karkar, Emirau, New Ireland, Duke of York, New Britain, Goodenough, Fergusson, Normanby, Misima, and Sudest Is.

P. a. ponceleti Troughton, 1936 — Solomon Is, including Bougainville, Fauro, New Georgia, Guadalcanal, Santa Isabel and Nendo Is.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 33-4— 48 mm, tail 27-41 mm, ear 9-3-15-5 mm, hindfoot 6-10 mm, forearm 31-37-4 mm; weight 3-2—4-3 g. Dorsal pelage of the New Guinea Pipistrelle is dark blackish brown; ventral pelage is pale brown, with some whitish hairs intermixed. Skin on face, ears, arms, and wing membranes are medium brown. Uropatagium is lightly furred, with cinnamon-brown hair along venation; forearm is lightly furred under humerus. Ears are triangular, with rounded tips, and posterior edge is conspicuously concave; tragus narrows slightly at rounded tip and has slightly concave anterior edge, gently convex posterior edge, and small basal lobe. Uropatagium stretches nearly to end of tail (only extreme tip is free), and postcalcarial lobe is elongated. Glans penisis narrow, with slight ventral folds forming shallow mesial groove. Baculum is long, with narrow base and shaft, and is bifurcated at tip (10% of total length). Skull is of moderate size, with very concave rostral profile; sagittal crest is absent; lambdoidal crest is moderately developed laterally and becomes less apparent toward apex where it is absent; zygomatic arches are moderately wide basally but weaker in middle; I* is bicuspid, and I” is unicuspid and subequal in height to second cusp of I*; P* is less than one-half the height of P* and is slightly displaced from tooth row; and lower molars are nyctalodont.

Habitat. Tall primary and secondary tropical moist forests and some urban areas from sea level up to elevations of ¢. 2400 m.

Food and Feeding. New Guinea Pipistrelles are insectivorous.

Breeding. Two pregnant New Guinea Pipistrelles were captured in June.

Activity patterns. New Guinea Pipistrelles emerge from roosts at dusk. They roost in caves, buildings, and bamboo clumps. They are seemingly slow fliers, with many erratic turns. Search-call shape is FM/QCEF, with a characteristic frequency of 48 kHz on Manus Island.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. A maternity colony of 200 individuals was found in June on New Ireland in a very close-knit cluster in a 500 x 66 cm cave ceiling. Males have often been found alone.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The New Guinea Pipistrelle does not seem to face any major threats.

Bibliography. Aplin & Opiang (2009), Aplin et al. (2015), Armstrong, Novera & Aplin (2015), Bonaccorso (1998), Bonaccorso & Leary (2008d), Flannery (1995a, 1995b), Kitchener et al. (1986).