Rhinolophus lepidus Blyth, 1844

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 : 18-19

5. Rhinolophus lepidus Blyth, 1844

(Blyth’s horseshoe bat)

New material: 1 M, 31.05.2017, Barog Tunnel, Solan District , Himachal Pradesh, V /M/ERS/491; 1 M , 01.06.2017, Saproon cave, Solan District, Himachal Pradesh, V /M/ERS/492; 1 F, 15.04.21, Ansuya , Chamoli District , Uttarakhand, V /M/ERS/656 .

Morphological description of specimens: The examined specimens had average forearm length of 38.8 mm. The dorsal pelage was cinnamon brown, individual hairs were buff with cinnamon brown tips. Ventrum was lighter brown with bicoloured hairs. In lateral view, the tip of the triangular connecting process was broadly rounded off compared to more acute shape in R. pusillus ( Bates & Harrison 1997) . The tip of the lancet in our specimens had straight sides for about 1.7 mm and then rounded off broadly. There were three mental grooves in the lower lips. The 3 rd metacarpal was shorter, and 4 th and 5 th were subequal.

The skull had a mean GTLi value of 16.38 mm and almost all cranial measurements overlaped with values for R. pusillus with which this Himalayan form was mostly confused ( Bates & Harrison 1997; Csorba et al. 2003). The sagittal crest, although weak, extended to the anterior portion of the lamboid region; this was unlike R. pusillus from northeastern India (e.g., V /M/ERS/ 722) wherein the weak sagittal crest flattened off in the posterior sagittal region. The upper canine was well developed exceeding the length of the second premolar. The first upper premolar was minute and situated on the toothrow; the canine and the second premolar were not in contact. The small lower third premolar was aligned with the toothrow and second and fourth premolars were not in contact.

The bacular shape was characteristic, elongated and S–shaped. The dorsal edge of the basal cone was shorter than the ventral one. The shaft gradually tapered towards the tip which was wide and roundish. The baculum of specimen V /M/ERS/491 was 3.52 mm in length and 0.95 mm wide at the base.

DNA: We obtained up to 702 bp of the COI from two individuals sampled in Himachal Pradesh (M 2203/ V /M/ERS/491, M 2209/ V /M/ERS/492) representing the smaller, northwestern subspecies Rh. lepidus monticola . Sequences were most closely related to Rh. shortridgei from northern Myanmar or to Rh. monticolus from Thailand (within 1.2% sequence divergence). One COI sequence from South India (GB MG821186 , Srinivasulu et al. unpublished) refereable to the larger, nominal subspecies Rh. l. lepidus differed slightly more (up to 3%). All these sequences formed a poorly resolved clade within the pusillus species complex ( Fig. 3 ), as already evidenced by Soisook et al. (2016).

Locality records and ecological notes: Himachal Pradesh: Drang (c. 780 m), Mandi District ( Ghosh 2008); Kullu (c. 1200 m), Kullu District ( Ghosh 2008); Barog Tunnel (1560 m), Saproon cave (1500 m) and Salogra cave (1440 m) (present study). Uttarakhand: Ansuya Devi (2000–2582 m), Benog WLS (1755 m), Mandal (1530 m) Chamoli district, Khati (2300 m), Almora (1600 m),Almora District ( Wroughton 1914 as R. monticola ; Chakravarty et al. 2020; present study); Ranibag (757 m), Nainital District ( Wroughton 1914).

This species was roosting inside the Barog tunnel, Salogra temple cave and a cave in Saproon although earlier surveys in some of these sites failed to find the species ( Saikia et al. 2011). In Barog tunnel, a few non–breeding individuals were found along with a few Rh. affinis . In Salogra and Saproon caves, they were observed in higher numbers (c.100 individuals) sharing roosting space with Rh. sinicus and My. longipes . The peak call frequency of Himachal specimens was recorded at 98–100 kHz, which is slightly less than those recorded in Uttarakhand 101–109 kHz ( Chakravarty et al. 2020). This frequency does not overlap with any other species in the study area and thus provides a reliable identification clue in the field.

Taxonomic note: The small rhinolophids of the Oriental Region are members of the Rh. pusillus species complex ( Csorba et al. 2003) and represent another group in a stage of taxonomic uncertainty ( Hutson et al. 2019). Recenty, Soisook et al. (2016) revised Indochinese taxa and concluded that several morphologically distinct taxa should warrant species rank although all were genetically poorly differentiated (mostly within 4% sequence divergence). As detailed by Bates & Harrison (1997) this uncertainty in species discrimination is a long–standing problem in the Himalayan foothills as well. Indeed, the distinctly smaller subspecies Rh. lepidus monticola living in this region overlaps in size and craniodental characteristics with the larger specimens of Rh. pusillus ( Bates & Harrison 1997; Csorba et al. 2003). Our samples from Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were sampled closer to the type locality of Rh. [l.] monticola (Mussorie; Andersen 1905) and all keyed out morphologically as typical Rh. l. monticola . These samples, however, were also genetically very similar (within 1.7% divergence) to other specimens sampled elsewhere in the Oriental Region, casting doubts about their specific distinctness. Clearly, nuclear markers are needed to solve this taxonomic conundrum within the pusillus species complex.

Figures

FIGURE 3: Neighbor-joining tree reconstruction of examined rhinolophids and hipposiderids 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.