147.

Pied Butterfly Bat

Glauconycteris superba

French: Glauconyctére pie / German: SchwarzweiRe Schmetterlingsfledermaus / Spanish: Glauconicterio pastel

Other common names: Badger Bat, Pied Bat, Superb Butterfly Bat

Taxonomy. Glauconycteris superba Hayman, 1939,

Pawa, ca. 45 km ENE Medje, Ituri District, DR Congo.

Despite being placed in its own genus (Noumbaha) based on unique pelage, superba is phylogenetically embedded in Glauconycters. It 1s sister to a clade including all other species of Glauconycteris, except G. variegata . Monotypic.

Distribution. Known from a few localities in W Ivory Coast, S Ghana, SW South Sudan, and NE DR Congo. Record from Budongo Forest, W Uganda, does not represent G. superba .

Descriptive notes. Head-body ¢.49-63 mm (two specimens), tail 3749 mm, ear 13 mm, hindfoot 8-3 mm (one specimen), forearm 42-6-47-7 mm; weight 13-5-19 g. Females are slightly larger than males. Pelage is dense and soft, with 6-7 mm mid-dorsal hairs. Dorsal pelageis black, with white markings comprising one spot on nose and two on forehead next to each ear, backward-pointing subtriangular band on each side of mid-dorsal line, narrow dorsal flank-stripe on each side, and either three spots in row or one short line on each shoulder. Ventral pelage has broad white band across throat, extending laterally to shoulders and then along each side of belly to anal region, with chin, flanks, and midventral region black. Ears are separated and subquadrangular. Tragusis very broad, with posterior margin distinctly curved with small basal lobule. Wings and uropatagium are dorsally blackish, without reticulation, and ventrally with pale reticulation. Elbows, knees, and anklesare black or pale. Tibia is long (c.19-21 mm) compared with other congeners. Head is high-domed, and muzzle is short, broad, and flattish. Skull is comparatively very large and robust; profile of forehead is strongly concave compared with other Glauconycterss. Sagittal crest is low. I? is unicuspid. Lower incisors aretricuspid or with four cusps and crowded.

Habitat. Closed lowland tropical moist forests and semideciduous forests at periphery of evergreen lowland rainforests at elevations of ¢.360-720 m.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. On Mbiye Island, north-eastern DR Congo, two of four females captured in December were lactating.

Activity patterns. Pied Butterfly Bats emitted calls alternating between two distinct frequencies, with the following values from DR Congo: type A, minimum frequencies of 20-5-25-1 kHz, maximum frequencies of 29.1-57 kHz, and durations of 3-1-9-6 milliseconds, and type B, minimum frequencies of 27-3-31-3 kHz, maximum frequencies of 38-8-73-3 kHz, and durations of 4-10-1 milliseconds.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Pied Butterfly Bat is known from less than ten individuals in areas that are now very degraded and fragmented, especially in West Africa. Major threats include habitat loss from logging and agriculture. Population size is unknown, butits trend is inferred to be declining, suggesting a classification in a threatened category or as Data Deficient would be more appropriate.

Bibliography. Fahr (2013w), Hassanin et al. (2018), Hayman (1947b), Ing et al. (2016), Reeder et al. (2013), Rosevear (1965).