301.

Dark Woolly Bat

Kerivoula furva

French: Kérivoule sombre / German: Dunkle Wollfledermaus / Spanish: Querivoula oscuro

Taxonomy. Kerivoula furva Kuo Haochih et al., 2017,

“ TAIWAN, Yilan County, Yuanshan Township, 3 km East of Shuanglianpi, 24º 45.20'N, 121°39.63'E, 180m asl”

See K. hardwickii . Current distribution of K. furva is still uncertain and might be more expansive in South-east Asia or less expansive in South Asia. Specimens throughout China that were thought to represent K. hardwickii and from Hainan and Taiwan islands that were identified as K. titania are now considered to be K. furva, and its distribution has recently been shown to unequivocally extend south to 18° N in Vietnam and west to eastern Nepal. Specimens form north-western India and Pakistan have not yet been compared with other members of the hardwickii species group and are tentatively included under K. furva . Genetically, K. furva appearsto be sister to a clade including K. depressa, K. kachinensis, and true South-east Asian K. hardwickii . Monotypic.

Distribution. N Pakistan, NW & NE India (Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram), N Myanmar, SC & SE China (Yunnan, Chongqing, Guangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Fujian), including Hainan and Taiwan Is, and N Vietnam.

Descriptive notes. Tail 35-45 mm, ear 9-9-15- 2 mm, hindfoot 6-3-9- 3 mm, forearm 29-9-37- 5 mm; weight 3- 2-7 g. The Dark Woolly Bat is darkest of Asiatic species of Kerwvoula. Fur is long and silky. Dorsal pelage varies from dark brown to blackish gray (hairs dark brown with even darker tips); venter is grayish brown (hairs with dark brown bases and medium brown tips on chest and pale gray tips on abdomen). Bare skin is dark brown, and edges of ears are darker than rest of ear. Ears are funnelshaped, and fold extends from base of ear to halfway up posterior margin; tragusis long and pointed, with distinct basal notch, and curvesslightly outward at tip and is generally pale, with dark or uniformly pale tip. Wings are attached at base of toes, and calcar is well developed and curved. Thickened smooth pad occurs at base of thumbs used for gripping. Tibia is distinctly shorter than in Titania's Woolly Bat ( K. titania). Skull is domed, with broadened and flattened braincase and no sagittal crest; basioccipital pits are well developed. I* is two-thirds the height of C'; I’ is one-half the height of I?, with an equal crown area; P? and P?® are slightly shorter than they are wide; P* is somewhat triangular, larger than P? and P?, and two-thirds the height of C'; M? has reduced mesostyle and metacone and lacks metastyle; I, and I, are tricuspid, and I, is unicuspid; three lower premolars are similar to one another; and M, has reduced talonid. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 32 and FN = 52 (Taiwan) or FN = 51 (Hainan).

Habitat. Primary and secondary subtropical and tropical forests, agricultural areas, and warm valleys at elevations up to ¢. 2100 m.

Food and Feeding. Dark Woolly Bats likely feed mostly on web-building spiders, but cockroach remains have been found in feces.

Breeding. In Taiwan, pregnant Dark Woolly Bats were reported from mid-April to mid-May and lactating females from mid-May to earlyJuly.

Activity patterns. The Dark Woolly Bat roosts in caves, buildings, and tree leaves. Calls in Taiwan had steep FM sweep, with start frequencies of 182-:4-222-1 kHz, end frequencies of 105-7-118-3 kHz, peak frequencies of 141-8-163-3 kHz, durations of 1-4-2 milliseconds, and interpulse intervals of 11:9-18-7 milliseconds.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Dark Woolly Bats roost alone or in small groups. In China, they were reported roosting in groups of 2-10 individuals in banana leaves and switched roosts almost every day. When switching roosts, group members stayed together most of the time.

Status and Conservation. Not assessed on The [UCN Red List. The Dark Woolly Bat was considered part of Hardwicke’s Woolly Bat ( K. hardwickii) that was classified as Least Concern. The Dark Woolly Bat is widespread and relatively common in much ofits distribution.

Bibliography. Bates & Harrison (1997), Das (2003), Kao Meiting et al. (2019), Kuo Haochih et al. (2017), Molur et al. (2002), Smith & Xie Yan (2008), Tu Vuong Tan et al. (2018), Wu Yi, Li Yuchun et al. (2012), Yu Wenhua etal. (2018).