Tylonycteris robustula Thomas 1915

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 : 19

Tylonycteris robustula Thomas 1915

Greater Bamboo Bat (Kelawar Buluh Besar )

Specimens examined (3).—Monggis: TTU 108237; Kubah NP: TTU 108309; Mt. Penrisen: TTU 108386 (GenBank EU521635 ).

Type locality.— Malaysia (Borneo), Upper Sarawak .

Malaysian distribution.—Recorded from Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.

Remarks.—Tribe Vespertilionini (Hoofer and Van Den Bussche 2003) . This species was caught mainly in harp traps near bamboo trees. The unique character of this species is the large, dark brown, flattened, disc-like pad on the thumb and sole of foot (different from those in G. tylopus ; see above). Along with a flattened head and body, these pads might facilitate their movement inside hollow bamboo stems. They have dark brown upperparts and slightly paler underparts. Tylonycteris robustula is morphologically similar to T. pachypus which has a smaller greatest skull length of 10.4-10.6 mm compared to 12.3-12.7 mm in T. robustula . Low cyt- b genetic distance (<1%) was observed between T. robustula from different localities in Borneo.