128.

Dark-brown Serotine

Neoromicia brunnea

French: Vespére brun-noir / German: Dunkelbraune Zwergfledermaus / Spanish: Neoromicia oscura

Other common names: Brown Pipistrelle Bat, Dark-brown Pipistrelle, Dark-brown Pipistrelle Bat

Taxonomy. Vesperugo (Vesperus) brunneus Thomas, 1880,

Calabar, south-eastern Nigeria.

Placed in Nycterikaupius by H. Menu in 1987. Neoromicia brunnea has been suggested to be close to N. rendalli and N. nanus . Monotypic.

Distribution. Sierra Leone E to Republic of the Congo.

Descriptive notes. Head-body c.43-48 mm, tail 33-46 mm, ear 9-15 mm, hindfoot 7-9-5 mm, forearm 33-38 mm; weight 4-9 g. Pelage of the Dark-brown Serotine is dense and soft; dorsally varies from medium brown and reddish brown to dark chocolate-brown, with unicolored hairs; ventral pelage is shorter and paler, with hairs blackish brown and tips pale grayish brown or medium brown. Wings are blackish brown, without white hind border. Ears are blackish, and subtriangular, with rounded tips; tragus is ¢.40% of ear length, with anterior margin short and straight, and posterior margin with a sharp angle giving a diagonally truncated appearance. Thumb is comparatively long and slender for a pipistrelle-like bat. Buccal glands are sometimes prominent. Baculum has basal lobes broadest near shaft base in lateral view, tapering to rounded end, and flattened at bottom, giving them a shoe-like appearance. Skull is large and robust (greatest skull lengths 13-14-1 mm); profile of forehead region is weakly concave; sagittal and lambdoidal crests are very weakly developed; and occipital helmetis absent. I? is unicuspid, without accessory cusp at posterior base of tooth; I’ is about one-quarter to one-third height of I*; P* is absent; lower molars are myotodont. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 36 and FNa = 50.

Habitat. Almost exclusively undisturbed or slightly disturbed lowland rainforests. The Dark-brown Serotine is apparently among the most specialized rainforest vespertilionids. It occupies forested habitats at elevations of 400-520 m in the Mount Nimba area, and up to 1470 m in Cameroon. In rainforest, it has been recorded mainly in evergreen and semideciduous lowland forms, but also in swamp forests and mangroves, as well as riverine forests within a rainforest-savanna mosaic, and a relict forest in the Guinea savanna.

Food and Feeding. The Dark-brown Serotine probably forages by slow hawking.

Breeding. In Tai National Park, Ivory Coast, four of five males had scrotal testes between February and March, a female was pregnant in late September, one was lactating in late February, one was lactating in early March, and one was neither lactating nor pregnant in late August. In Banco National Park, south-eastern Ivory Coast, of two females one was pregnant, the other was neither lactating nor pregnant; two males had scrotal testes in mid-September. Near Fintonia, northern Sierra Leone, two females were lactating in late April. Littersize is one.

Activity patterns. No information.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. In a sample of eight individuals from Tai National Park, ratio of males to females was 1:1-7. In 15 museum specimens from West Africa, ratio was 1:1-5.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Near Threatened on The IUCN Red List. Populations seem to be in decline at a rate close to 30% over a ten-year period, due to widespread habitat loss through much ofits range.

Bibliography. Fahr (2008c, 2013f), Hill & Harrison (1987), Hoofer & Van Den Bussche (2003), Koopman (1993, 1994), McBee et al. (1987), Menu (1987), Monadjem, Richards & Denys (2016), Simmons (2005).