320.

Smith’s Woolly Bat

Kerivoula smithii

French: Kérivoule de Smith / German: Smith-Wollfledermaus / Spanish: Querivoula de Smith

Taxonomy. Kerivoula smithii Thomas, 1880,

“Old Calabar,” Nigeria.

This species is monotypic.

Distribution. Known from a few scattered records from Nigeria and Cameroon E through DR Congo to Uganda and Kenya.

Descriptive notes. Head-body ¢.39 44 mm, tail 40-49 mm, ear 11-15 mm, hindfoot 5-7-8- 2 mm, forearm 32-36 mm; weight 5-9- 7 g. Sexes are similar. Pelage is dense, woolly, and frizzled, with many hairs having hooked tips. Dorsal pelage is grayish brown to dark brown, with silvery sheen and silvery or straw-colored frosting. Dorsal hairs are blackish or dark brown, often with silvery or straw-colored tips. Mid-dorsal hairs are ¢. 9 mm. Ventral pelage is paler brown. Ventral hairs are grayish brown or blackish brown, usually with pale brown or fawn tips, but some have whitish silvery tips. Wings are blackish or dark brown, with scattered hairs extending to dorsal surfaces of forearm, third digit, thumb, tibia, and tail. Uropatagium is dark brown, with posterior margin and sparse hairs but no comb-like fringe of hooked bristle-like hairs. Ears are widely separated, funnel-shaped, short for a vespertilionid, dark brown or blackish, and deeply emarginated below tips. Tragusis long, tapering, and curved outward, and base has small triangular lobule over shallow emargination. Eyes are minute. Head is high-domed. Muzzle is long, pointed, partly hidden byfacial pelage. Tail is ¢.92-131% of head-body length. Skull is small (greatest skull lengths 13-1-14- 1 mm); braincase is high-domed; rostrum is narrow; and frontal region is sharply angular to plane as in otherspecies of Kerivoula . I? is bicuspid andtaller than I’; I? is unicuspid or weakly bicuspid; P? is slightly higher than P?, and much smaller than P%I and I, are tricuspid; I, is unicuspid; and lower premolars are subequal in size.

Habitat. Mainly lowland rainforests but also mangroves (southern Nigeria), Congolese swamp forests DR Congo), montane forests (Cameroon highlands, Uganda, and Kenya), and riverine forests in Somalia-Masai bushland, at elevations of 900-2800 m.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. In Kenya, a pregnant Smith’s Woolly Bat was captured in September from Bura, near Garissa, and another in December from Warwick. In Uganda, two females were pregnant in late November. In north-eastern DR Congo, two females each with an attached young were found in early October. Litter size is one.

Activity patterns. Fourteen calls from the Aberdare Range in Kenya had mean peak frequency of95-9 (81-5-104-9 kHz), maximum frequency of 126-3 (115-6-137-2 kHz), minimum frequency of 65-3 (44-9-91-8 kHz), duration of 61 milliseconds (25-1-85-5 milliseconds), and interpulse interval of 0-2 milliseconds (0-1-0-6 milliseconds).

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Ectoparasites include the mite Rodhainyssus myotis (Acari, Gastronyssidae).

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List.

Bibliography. ACR (2017), Eisenring et al. (2016), Koopman (1994).