Megaderma spasma (Linnaeus 1758)

FAISAL ALI ANWARALI KHAN, VICKI J. SWIER, SERGIO SOLARI, PETER A. LARSEN, BESAR KETOL, WAHAP MARNI, SIVANATHAN ELLAGUPILLAY, MAKLARIN LAKIM, MOHAMMAD TAJUDDIN ABDULLAH & ROBERT J. BAKER, 2008, USING GENETICS AND MORPHOLOGY TO EXAMINE SPECIES DIVERSITY OF OLD WORLD BATS: REPORT OF A RECENT COLLECTION FROM MALAYSIA, Occasional Papers of the Museum 281, pp. 1-30 : 17

Megaderma spasma (Linnaeus 1758)

Lesser False Vampire Bat (Kelawar Telinga Lebar)

Specimens examined (2).—Bako NP: TTU 108285 (GenBank EU521606 ); Kubah NP: TTU 108347.

Type locality.— Indonesia, Molucca Isls , Ternate .

Malaysian distribution.—Recorded from Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.

Remarks.— Megaderma spasma was collected with harp traps across trails in the forest. Unlike Nycteris , Megaderma has long ears that are connected at the base ( Payne et al. 1985), a long noseleaf with convex sides, and no tail. A comparison to a GenBank sequence from Java, Indonesia ( AY057942 ), were about 0.4 to 2% cyt- b genetic distance, suggesting individuals we captured in Borneo probably represent M. spasma whereas others specimens compared here need to be reevaluated.

There are two species in this genus recognized within Malaysia: M. lyra and M. spasma . Morphologically, M. lyra (FA: 60-71 mm) differs in noseleaf shape and narial emargination of skull compared to M. spasma (FA: 52-63 mm) (Corbet and Hill 1992). Genetically, we have compared the cyt- b sequences of specimens identified as M. spasma from Thailand (TK 21322 and TK 21323) to our specimens from Borneo and found a genetic distance of 10-12% separates the two. Additionally, when we compared our specimens to individuals identified as M. lyra in GenBank ( DQ888678 : China and DQ680822 : India), a genetic distance of 20-21% separated lyra from spasma . Specimens from Thailand or those in GenBank may actually represent M. lyra , but this hypothesis remains to be tested, as the voucher specimens were unavailable for examination.