Plecotus wardi Thomas, 1911

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 : 54

27. Plecotus wardi Thomas, 1911

(Ward’s long–eared bat)

New material: 1 F, 08.06.2017, Narkanda, Shimla District , Himachal Pradesh ( V /M/ERS/415); 2 F , 10.05.2019 Tungnath , KWLS, Uttarakhand ( V /M/ERS/632 and 634); 1 M , 26.04.2021, Chopta, Chamoli district , Uttarakhand ( V /M/ERS/658) .

Morphological description of specimens: A very distinctive bat with huge ears (32.5–42.6 mm) and medium– sized forearms ( FA 41.9–45.6 mm). Tragus was spindle shaped and just short of half the length of ear. Dorsal fur (9.5 mm long) was beige or brown with darker roots while the ventral fur was creamy white with darker roots. Muzzle was flesh–coloured covered with scattered hairs. The patagium, interfemoral membranes were essentially naked except for the proximal ends. Feet were also covered with short hairs. The thumb was long (> 7 mm) which can be used to differentiate externally this species from sympatric Pl. homochrous (thumb <5 mm) ( Fig. 15H ).

The braincase was slim, longish (GTLi ≥ 17.0 mm). From the rostrum, the braincase elevated almost in a straight line till the frontal region. The braincase was slightly bulbous in the frontal region and constricted in the parietal region. The tympanic bullae were quite enlarged (maximal diameter 4.75 mm) and frontally extended almost to the level of hamular process. The zygomatic arches were not flared, thin, and enlarged mid–dorsally. As compared with Pl. homochrous , Pl. wardi was considerably larger in craniodental measurements ( Table S4) and had stronger dentition (compare Figs 25 A-C).

DNA: The COI sequence of one specimen from Himachal Pradesh (M 2259 V /M/ERS/415) was very similar (about 1.5% K2P) to haplotypes from Uttarakhand (GB MN339196 ) and proved to be unique among the plecotine bats analyzed so far ( Fig. 4 ). They were most closely related to Central Asian Pl. strelkovi ( Chakravarty et al. 2020) , but very distinct from those of Pl. austriacus (>20% K2P) with which wardi had earlier been synonymized (e.g., Bates & Harrison, 1997).

Locality records and ecological notes: Uttarakhand: Martoli (3575 m) and Milam (3740 m) in Pithoragarh district; Shokharakh (3065 m) in Chamoli district and Tungnath (3500 m) in Rudraprayag district ( Spitzenberger et al. 2006; Chakravarty et al. 2020). Himachal Pradesh: Narkanda (2700 m), Shimla district (present study). One lactating female was caught in a harp trap inside pine–fir forest in Narkanda. Another lactating female was caught near an artificial waterhole early in the morning in a flap net and was released. Capture of lactating females again indicates the presence of a maternity colony nearby. The Uttarakhand specimen was caught in a mist net in alpine meadow in mid–May and did not show any apparent sign of lactation. This is a high–elevation species with records so far from altitudes ranging between 1700 m (Hari Parbat, Srinagar, India) and 3750 m (Milam, Uttarakhand). In Uttarakhand, it occured in sympatry with Pl. homochrous at 3000 m. This species was not recorded below 3000 m in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary ( Chakravarty et al. 2020).

Taxonomic notes: The systematics of long eared bats of the genus Plecotus has been marred with uncertainity. Based on a global morphological and molecular revision Spitzenberger et al. (2006) distinguished at least 19 main lineages, most of which requiring species status. A recent review, however, indicated that the above study might have overestimated the species diversity and actually only two species, Pl. homochorus and Pl. wardi (including Pl. ariel ) occur in the whole Himalayan region ( Fukui et al. 2020). The former species is distributed from Pakistan, via northwestern India, Nepal, Tibet, and Yunnan, to northern Vietnam, whereas the latter is presently known from Pakistan, northwestern India, Tibet, Szechwan, and Nepal ( Spitzenberger et al. 2006; Benda & Gaisler 2015; Fukui et al. 2020).

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 15. Portraits of A) My. blythii (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/405), B) My. longipes (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/441), C) My. nipalensis (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/445), D) My. muricola (released animal), E) My. sicarius (released animal), F) Su. caliginosus (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/417), G) Ny. leisleri (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/413), and H) Pl. wardi (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/415). Inset: Direct comparison of thumb length between Pl. wardi (ZSIS–NERC V/M/ERS/658, left) and Pl. homochrous (ZSIS–NERC V/M/ERS/654, right).

FIGURE 25. Lateral view of cranium and mandible of Pl. wardi from A) Himachal Pradesh (ZSI–NERC V/M/ERS/415), B) Pakistan (HNHM 99.14.3), and C) Pl. homochrous from Uttarakhand (ZSIS– NERC V/M/ERS/654).