Sphaerias blanfordi ( Thomas, 1891 )

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 : 14

1. Sphaerias blanfordi ( Thomas, 1891)

(Blanford’s Fruit Bat)

New material: 1 F, 14.05.2019, Kanchula, Kedarnath WLS, Uttarakhand (released) .

Morphological description of specimen: An adult female was caught in a clearing at a mixed oak–maple forest. It had a forearm length of 52.8 mm. The muzzle was short, and the ears had a thin white anterior margin. Tail was absent and the interfemoral membrane and hindfeet were densely covered with hairs. Two pairs of lower incisors were visible. It also had two tufts of yellowish hairs on either side of the neck.

DNA: no biological material was obtained from this species.

Locality records and ecological notes: Himachal Pradesh: Not recorded. Uttarakhand: Dogalbita (2370 m), Kanchula (2600 m), Chamoli district; Sukhidhang (1380 m), Almora district; Dharchula (920 m), Dummer (1540 m), Khela (1540 m) and Tawaghat (1140 m), Pithoragarh district ( Bhat 1974; present study) .