Rhinolophus pearsonii Horsfield, 1851

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 : 19-20

6. Rhinolophus pearsonii Horsfield, 1851

(Pearson’s horseshoe bat)

New material: 1 M, 03.05.21, Ansuya, Chamoli District, Uttarakhand, V /M/ERS/657.

Morphological description of specimens: A medium sized horseshoe bat with forearm length of 53.9 mm in the Uttarakhand specimen. The pelage was long and woolly, dorsally chestnut brown, slightly paler on the belly. Ears were very long compared to the body size. The noseleaf was similar to the Northern woolly horseshoe bat but without the circular basal lappets in the former. The horseshoe was broad covering the entire muzzle and had a wide and deep emargination. When viewed laterally, the superior connecting process of the sella was rounded, deflected downward but the inferior surface was almost straight. The lancet was triangular with a relatively pointed tip. The lower lip had a single mental groove. The tail membrane was characteristically covered with hairs on the upper surface.

DNA: No biological sample from the Western Himalayas could be obtained for DNA analyses.

Locality records and ecological notes: Uttarakhand: Ansuya (2580 m), Mandal (1530 m), Chamoli district; Mussoorie (2000 m), Dehradun district; Narkota (1350 m), Rudraprayag district; Loharkhet (1800 m) Bageshwar district ( Bates & Harrison, 1997; Chakravarty et al. 2020; present study).

The individual from Uttarakhand was caught in a mistnet covering a narrow trail in primary oak forest. Su. caliginosus , My. muricola , and Murina sp. were also caught in the same net. The echolocation call peak frequency was recorded at ~60 kHz and overlaps with the smaller Rh. macrotis .