311.

Painted Woolly Bat

Kerivoula picta

French: Kérivoule peinte / German: Bunte Wollfledermaus / Spanish: Querivoula pintado

Other common names: Painted Bat

Taxonomy. Vespertilio pictum Pallas, 1767,

“Ceylona & e Molluccano Archipelago.” Restricted by G. H. H. Tate in 1941 to “Island of Ternate, near Halmahera,” Molucca Islands, Indonesia.

Kerivoula picta and K. pellucida appear to be basal to the rest of the Asiatic Kerivoula species, and both might be close to the African Kerivoula . Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution. K.p.pictaPallas,1767—India(Rajasthan,Gujarat,Maharashtra,Goa,Karnataka,AndhraPradesh,Kerala,TamilNadu,Sikkim,WestBengal,Odisha,andAssam),SriLanka,CNepal,Bangladesh,Myanmar,Thailand,Laos,Vietnam,Cambodia,PeninsularMalaysia,Sumatra,Java,BaliI,LombokI,andMoluccas(Halmahera,Ternate,andAmbonIs).

K. p. bellissima Thomas, 1906 — SE China (Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Jiangxi), including Hainan I.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 40-48 mm, tail 37-48 mm, ear 13-16 mm, hindfoot 4-8 mm, forearm 31-39 mm; weight 4-5-5- 5 g. Fur is long, dense, and woolly. Dorsal pelage is bright orange to tawny red (hairs unicolored); venteris buffy, with distinct orange hue on flanks. Older males are apparently brighter than females. Wings are bright orange surrounding bones, with black between digits on membrane, and uropatagium is orangeto scarlet and hairy dorsally; there is well-defined fringe of hairs at posterior margin of uropatagium. Face is very hairy but lightly colored with hair on lips but not nostrils. Ears are relatively large, with smoothly concave anterior borders and distinct concavity just below rounded tips on posterior borders; tragusis tall and narrow, with pointed tip, slightly convex anterior margin, and basal lobe on posterior margin. Wings are attached at base of outertoes, and feet are hairy. Skull is mediumsized, rostrum is delicate and shallow, postorbital constriction is narrow, and braincase is inflated and elevated above rostrum. I? is conspicuously bicuspid.

Habitat. Primarily dry forests and scrubby areas but also agricultural areas (e.g. banana and plantain plantations, sugarcane, and other crop fields) from sea level up to elevations of c. 1500 m.

Food and Feeding. Painted Woolly Bats forage low to the ground around and in bushy and densely vegetated areas. Flight is apparently fluttery, with up and down motion (resembling a large moth). They appearto feed mostly on web-building spiders, with insects making up small percentages of diets.

Breeding. Painted Woolly Bats form monogamous breeding pairs each year; in Thailand, they appear to change partners annually. Two apparently mating individuals and a female carrying a young infant were captured in mid-October in Sri Lanka. A female with a suckling infant and a male were captured under dry banana leaves in late August in Kerala, southern India. The same family group system was noticed in February— October in Thailand. Oldest recorded age is five years for females and four for males in Thailand, but they likely live longer than this.

Activity patterns. Painted Woolly Bats roost in foliage and underlarge leaves, preferring dried, rolled up, and drooping leaves, particularly of plantains and bananas. They are also known to roost in dry grass, flowers, weaver nests, and other large-leaved plants. In Thailand, a pair was recorded roosting in man-made paper shelters. During the day, Painted Woolly Bats enter semi-torpor while roosting; they are very sluggish when disturbed. They emerge in the evening to forage through the night. In Thailand, calls of individuals in flight were steep FM sweep, with average start frequency of 140-2 kHz (98-7-156-9 kHz), end frequency of 103-6 kHz (81-134 kHz), peak frequency of 115-8 kHz (66-144-8 kHz), duration of 0-6 milliseconds (0-3-0-9 milliseconds), and interpulse interval of 41-1 milliseconds (10-2-592 milliseconds).

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Painted Woolly Bats often roost in breeding pairs with young during breeding season in Thailand, but they are often alone during non-breeding season (November—-December). In Thailand, roosting pairs were observed 64% of the time in November—-December, but in February, June, and September—October, they were always in family groups of a breeding pair and a single young. They switch roosts every 1-4 days. Foraging areas of breeding pairs did not overlap and were 6-1 ha for males and 5-6 ha for females.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Painted Woolly Batis widespread and does not face any major threats. Nevertheless,it is not particularly common anywhere, and its distribution is relatively fragmented.

Bibliography. Bates & Harrison (1997), Corbet & Hill (1992), Devkar et al. (2017), Flannery (1995a), Francis (2008a), Funakoshi, Fukui et al. (2015), Hawkeswood & Sommung (2017), Hill (1965b), Hutson, Francis, Molur & Srinivasulu (2008), Kruskop (2013a), Madhavan et al. (2014), Molur et al. (2002), Patel et al. (2017), Sarker & Sarker (2005), Smith & Xie Yan (2008), Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu (2005, 2012), Sripathi et al. (2006), Tate (1941e), Tu Vuong Tan et al. (2018).