273.

Nut-colored Yellow Bat

Scotophilus nux

French: Scotophile noisette / German: Nussfarbene Hausfledermaus / Spanish: Scotofilo castano

Other common names: Dark House Bat, Nut-colored House Bat, Nux Yellow House Bat

Taxonomy. Scotophilus nigrita nux Thomas, 1904,

“Efulen, Cameroons [= Cameroon].”

Scotophilus nux has been treated as a subspecies of nigrita (when nigrita was used for the species now called S. dinganii) or a subspecies of S. leucogaster . Based on multivariate analyses of forearm and cranial measurements, it is treated as a distinct species. Monotypic.

Distribution. Patchily recorded in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Uganda, and Kenya; possibly Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Descriptive notes. Head—body ¢. 67-89 mm, tail 44-54 mm, ear 15-19 mm, hindfoot 13-15 mm, forearm 53-61 mm; weight 25-37 g. Pelage is smooth, sleek, and glossy. Dorsum is rusty brown, dark rusty brown, or blackish brown; hairs are unicolored. Mid-dorsal hairs are 6-7 mm. Venteris slightly paler and dark brown to reddish orange. Wings and uropatagium are blackish brown. Ears are dark brown, short, and separated; inner margin is strongly convex, with lobe at base; and outer margin is fairly straight, with semicircular fleshy antitragus. Tragus tapers to bluntly rounded tip, with anterior margin concave. Skull has well-developed sagittal crest and occipital helmet. Dorsal profile ofskull is slightly concave at rostrumand slopes gradually upward to occiput. Jaws and dentition are robust. I* is unicuspid; M' and M* have concave surfaces and indistinct ridges and appear worn; and M? is very short and has only two ridges. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 36 and FNa = 50 in Cameroon.

Habitat. [Lowland rainforest and clearings.

Food and Feeding. The Nut-colored Yellow Bat apparently forages over water.

Breeding. Two Nut-colored Yellow Bats with one fetus each were recorded in March in DR Congo.

Activity patterns. The Nut-colored Yellow Bat roosts in hollow trees and in small groups in roofs of houses. In western Uganda, echolocation calls had minimum frequency of 40-7 kHz, maximum frequency of 54-1 kHz, characteristic frequency of 43 kHz, frequency of the knee of 45-1 kHz, and duration of 2 milliseconds. In Gabon, mean minimum frequency was 38-5 kHz (37-8-40), mean maximum frequency was 59-5 kHz (52-5-75-8), mean dominant frequency was 44-5 kHz (41:1-47-4), mean duration was 1-9 milliseconds (1-6-2-5), and mean interpulse interval was 57-1 milliseconds (16-2-108-6).

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

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

Bibliography. Monadjem et al. (2011), Peereboom & Van Lieshout (2015), Robbins et al. (1985), Simmons (2005), Van Cakenberghe & Happold (20139).