Myotis blythii ( Tomes, 1857 )

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 : 34

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5644.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:98354CF6-78A5-4CCD-84FE-1E220B722DE9
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03BB87E9-FFC9-2D03-FF6D-FF2EFBD4FAF4
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Myotis blythii ( Tomes, 1857 )
status

Treatment

16. Myotis blythii ( Tomes, 1857) View in CoL

(Lesser Mouse–eared Bat)

New material: 1 M, 31.05.2017, Barog Tunnel, Solan District , Himachal Pradesh, V /M/ERS/ 405 .

Morphological description of specimen: A single individual was captured from a crevice inside Barog tunnel. Largest amongst all Indian Myotis , this male had a weight of 16 g and forearm length of 58.4 mm. The wings were long and broad with a wingspan of 380 mm. The dorsal fur was grey–brown, and the venter was beige. Hairs were darker at the base with paler tips. Belly fur was shorter (c. 4 mm) than on the back (c. 6 mm) as also noted by Bates & Harrison (1997). The muzzle was pointed, flesh coloured and covered with scattered hairs. Unlike in most European My. blythii , there was no apparent patch of white fur on the forehead between ears. Ears were elongated, light brown. The tragus was half the length of ear and narrowed down towards the tip ( Fig. 15A View FIGURE 15 ). The wings attached to the outer metatarsal of each foot.

The cranium was robust with the greatest length of 21.2 mm in our specimen. The rostrum was short and broad; the braincase elevated gently above the rostrum. Distinct supraorbital ridges were present. Sagittal crest was not very prominent. Lambda formed the posterior extremity of the skull. The coronoid process of each mandible was tall and triangular. Compared to the skull size, dentition was weak. The upper incisors were bicuspidate, the second one slightly shorter than the first. Canine was relatively short, only slightly exceeding the level of third premolar. The first and second upper premolars were similar in surface area and the second one was slightly intruded. The first two lower incisors were tricuspidate while the third one had four cusps. Lower molars were myotodont.

The baculum of M. blythii is variable in shape although the overall structure matches to an arrowhead ( Albayrak & Asan 2001). The baculum length of our specimen was 1 mm and 0.6 mm wide at the base. In dorsal view, the broad shape corresponded to that of an isosceles triangle with a rounded tip and arched base. The baculum was curved upward in dorsal profile ( Fig. 14H View FIGURE 14 ).

DNA: The COI (GB MW054901 View Materials ) and CYTB (GB MW054872 View Materials ) sequences from this Himachal Pradesh specimen were reported in a previous account ( Ruedi et al. 2021). These sequences were very similar (<2% sequence divergence) to specimens collected in Pakistan (GB MK799658 View Materials ) or in CentralAsia (e.g.,GB MT588108 View Materials orAF376840), but more divergent (about 6%) from other taxa such as My. b. oxygnathus from Europe (e.g., GB OQ885387 ) .

Taxonomic note: The taxon Myotis blythii was originally described by Tomes (1857) as Vespertilio blythii from an unprecise locality called Nassenabad; its exact geographic location is far from clear but logically should be considered as “Himalayas” ( Topál 1971; Khandal et al. 2022). Another taxon, Vespertilio murinoides was subsequently described from Chamba area of Himachal Pradesh ( Dobson 1873), but Thomas (1915) considered it as a synonym of My. blythii . Based on examination of the type series of Dobson (1873) in the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, Topál (1971) also confirmed the above view of synonymy and opined that the Western Himalayas is inhabited by a single form My. blythii . This nominate form My. b. blythii occurs south of the Himalayas from Nepal to Afghanistan ( Benda & Gaisler 2015) and parts of Central Asia ( Benda et al. 2011).