283.

Robbins’s Yellow Bat

Scotophilus nucella

French: Scotophile de Robbins / German: Robbins-Hausfledermaus / Spanish: Scotofilo de Robbins

Other common names: Robbins’'s House Bat, Lesser Nut-colored House Bat, Rainforest House Bat, Nucella House Bat, Little Nut-colored House Bat

Taxonomy. Scotophilus nucella Robbins, 1983,

1 mile [= 1-6 km] north of Nkawkaw, Eastern region, Ghana .

Scotophilus nucella was treated as a subspecies of leucogaster but now as a distinct species. Monotypic.

Distribution. Known only from SE Ivory Coast, S Ghana, extreme WC Uganda, and Kambai Forest Reserve in East Usambara Mts of Tanzania.

Descriptive notes. Head-body c¢.74 78 mm, tail 41-47 mm, ear 15-16 mm, hindfoot 10-12 mm, forearm 49-53 mm. Pelage is soft and sleek. Dorsal pelage is dark rusty brown to blackish brown; dorsal hairs are unicolored or have paler bases. Ventral pelage is slightly paler and dark brown to reddish orange. Ears are short, widely separated, and dark brown, with strongly convex inner margin and lobe at base; outer margin is fairly straight, with semicircular fleshy antitragus. Tragus has pointed tip and concave anterior margin. Wings and uropatagium are sepia-brown. Braincase is relatively inflated, and sagittal crest forms a helmet.

Habitat. Rainforests. Robbins’s Yellow Bat is known from high forest vegetation zone in Ghana and Uganda and might occur in high forest areas of West, Central, and East Africa.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. No information.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List.

Bibliography. Grubb et al. (1998), Koopman (1993, 1994), Robbins (1983), Simmons (2005).