Murina huttonii ( Peters, 1872 )

Saikia, Uttam, Chakravarty, Rohit, Csorba, Gabor, Laskar, Mostaque Ahmed & Ruedi, Manuel, 2025, Taxonomic reassessment of bats from the Western Himalayas, India and description of a new species of the Myotis frater complex (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae), Zootaxa 5644 (1), pp. 1-78 : 48-50

23. Murina huttonii ( Peters, 1872)

(Hutton’s tube–nosed Bat)

New material: 1 M, 10.06.2017, Kandaghat , Himachal Pradesh, V /M/ERS/424; 1 M , 2.06.2017, Mount Karol, Solan District, Himachal Pradesh V /M/ERS/443; one released male, Ansuya ( KWLS), Uttarakhand , 01.05.2019.

Morphological description of specimens: The pelage of the two examined Himachal Pradesh specimens was thick and soft. The Kandaghat specimen had a light brown dorsal fur with lighter tips while the ventral fur was grayish white with faint brown roots ( Fig. 11G ). The ears and muzzle were light brown. The specimen from Mount Karol was also similar in appearance except for the muzzle which was little darker with dark brown hairs and the ventral hairs had brownish roots. The pelage of one released animal from Uttarakhand was darker dorsally and had fawn coloured venter ( Fig. 11H ). Such colour variation among individuals of this species was noted earlier and calls for further studies for possible cryptic diversity ( Son et al. 2015). The anterior border of the ears was slightly concave while the posterior border was little concave in both morphotypes. The interfemoral membranes were naked below but the feet were hairy.

The cranium was comparatively large with an average GTLi of 18.3 mm and dentition was robust. The mandibles were strong with a highly elevated coronoid process ( Fig. 21A ).

The baculum was almost rectangular with slightly narrower distal end which was broadly rounded off ( Fig. 14I ). There were concavities at both the ends but the one at the base was more acute. In dorsal profile, it was convex while the ventral surface was concave, partly damaged in our specimen). The baculum of specimen V /M/ERS/443 was 1.11 mm long and 0.61 mm wide at the base.

DNA: The COI sequences from the two Himachal Pradesh individuals (M 2261/ V /M/ERS/424 and M 2218/ V /M/ERS/443) were identical to each other and were also identical or very similar to two sequences from near the type locality in Uttarakhand (GB MN339182 and MN339183 ; Chakravarty et al. 2020). These genuine Mu. huttonii haplotypes diverged more extensively (> 6.8%; Table S2) from sequences of bats assigned to M. huttonii from China (e.g. GB KU521385 or MN549054 ) or Indochina (e.g., GB KF772784 ; Fig. 4 ). The CYTB of the same two individuals from Himachal Pradesh likely diverged considerably from other sequences, the closest match being haplotypes of Mu. puta from Taiwan (e.g., GB GQ168901 ) at 8% sequence divergence ( Table S3 and Fig. 6).

Locality records and ecological notes: Uttarakhand: Ansuya (2000 m) in Chamoli district; Dhanaulti (2114 m) in Tehri–Garhwal district; Lansdowne (1615 m) in Pauri–Garhwal district; Khati (2320 m) in Bagheswar district ( Wroughton 1914; Chakravarty et al. 2020). The earlier records of Mu. leucogaster from Devalsari (1698 m) in Tehri–Garhwal district ( Chakravarty et al. 2020) also possibly belongs to this species. Himachal Pradesh: Kandaghat (1560 m) and Mount Karol (1850 m) in Solan district (present study); unspecified locality in Chamba district (photographic evidence). We caught one specimen in a harp–trap set in a gully amongst pine forests while another was caught in harp trap set in a pine forest opening. Tube–nosed bats are known to be forest dwellers and our catches in Solan also point to this habitat preference. Interestingly, the Chamba animal was caught while entering a village house surrounded by farmlands and some tree strands. Few bats have reportedly been living in the space between stone slates and wooden roof of the house for a couple of years and returned to the same place even after evicted once by the owner (R. Kapoor, pers. comm.). In Uttarakhand also, these bats were mist netted in pine or oak forests ( Chakravarty et al. 2020).

Taxonomic notes: The relatively large genetic distance (>6.8% K2P) measured between the topotypic material from Western Himalayas and numerous specimens sequenced from China and Indochina certainly underscores further taxonomic diversity in this Oriental Region (Chakravorty et al. 2020). Interestingly, the Taiwanese endemic Mu. puta is genetically the least divergent (about 8% K2P) from Indian samples of Mu. huttonii for both COI and CYTB markers ( Figs 4 and 6).

Figures

FIGURE 4: Neighbor-joining tree reconstruction of examined vespertilionids, miniopterids and molossids COI sequences and based on the K2P matrix in Table S2. Branches are proportional to the number of mutational steps. Sequence names are composed of the first two letters of the genus, followed by the species name, the GenBank number (or field number for newly sequenced samples), and the region of origin. Samples from India are highlighted in bold face.

FIGURE 11. Portraits of some bat species recorded from the Western Himalayas during the present study.A) Ba. darjelingensis (released animal), B) Ep. pachyomus (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/420), C) Hy. affinis (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/638), D) Hy. savii (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/633), E) Mu. cf. aurata (released animal), F) Mu. cyclotis (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/425), G) Mu. huttonii (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/424), H) Mu. huttonii (released animal from Ansuya, Uttarakhand).

FIGURE 14. Dorsal (D), ventral (V) and lateral (L) profile of bacula of some bat species from the study area. A) Rh. macrotis (D, V, L, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/564), B) Rh. lepidus (D, V, L, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/449), C) Rh. nippon (D, V, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/402), D) My. himalaicus sp. nov. (D, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/653), E) Ny. leisleri (D, L, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/413), F) Hy. affinis (D, L, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/638), G) My. longipes (D, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/ 438), H) My. blythii (D, L, ZSI– NERC V/M/ERS/405), I) Mu. huttonii (D, V, ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/ 443). Note, bacula B, D and I are partially damaged.

FIGURE 21. Dorsal, ventral, and lateral view of cranium and lateral and ventral view of mandible of A) Mu. huttonii (ZSI– NERC 443), and B) Mu. cyclotis (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/425) from the Western Himalayas.