Myotis himalaicus, Saikia & Chakravarty & Csorba & Laskar & Ruedi, 2025
publication ID |
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5644.1.1 |
publication LSID |
lsid:zoobank.org:pub:98354CF6-78A5-4CCD-84FE-1E220B722DE9 |
persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03BB87E9-FFCB-2D08-FF6D-FDD9FAD8FE78 |
treatment provided by |
Plazi |
scientific name |
Myotis himalaicus |
status |
sp. nov. |
Myotis himalaicus sp. nov. Ruedi, Chakravarty, Saikia & Csorba
Himalayan long–tailed Myotis
ZooBank Life Science Identifier (LSID): urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:98354CF6-78A5-4CCD-84FE-E220B722DE9 Synonyms:
Myotis cf. frater ( Chakravarty et al. 2020) View in CoL
Holotype: adult male collected by R. Chakravarty on 2 nd of May 2021 in Ansuya , Chamoli District , Uttarakhand, India. It is deposited in the collection of the Zoological Survey of India at Shillong under accession number V /M/ERS/ 653. The specimen is conserved in alcohol with skull and baculum prepared separately. Part of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxydase subunit 1 gene ( COI) was sequenced from tissue extracts taken on the holotype. This nucleotide sequence is deposited in the GenBank under accession number PQ776313.
Paratype: Adult female, collected by G. Csorba and L. Ronkay on 22 nd of July 1998 in Kaghan Valley (34°36'48" N, 73°27'0.97"8 E, 2300 m), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is deposited in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum under accession number HNHM – MAM 99.14 .5. The specimen is conserved in alcohol with skull prepared separately .
Type locality: The holotype was caught in a mist net set above a water pond surrounded by dense evergreen forests, at Ansuya, Chamoli District , Uttarakhand (30°29’15.5” N, 79°17’29” E), at an elevation of 2000 m above sea level GoogleMaps .
Etymology: The epithet himalaicus refers to the current distribution of the species, which appears to be endemic to the southern slopes of the western part of the Himalayan mountains and extending to Hindu Kush Range in the west. Suggested vernacular name is Himalayan long–tailed Myotis .
Measurements of the holotype: Measurements are in mm and were taken on the prepared specimen. Head and body length, 43; tail length, 45.8; forearm length, 41.1; hind foot length (including claw), 8.2; Tibia length, 21.3; ear length, 13.5; tragus length, 6.1; greatest skull length, including incisors, 13.8; condyle–basal length, 13.3; greatest zygomatic breadth, 9.2; postorbital breadth, 4.1; mastoid breadth, 7.6; greatest braincase width, 7.1; skull height, 5.6; upper canine–molar toothrow, 3.4; width across upper canines, 4.1; width across 3rd upper molars, 6.0; mandible length, including incisive, 10.3; lower canine–molar toothrow, 5.9.
Diagnosis: Medium–sized (6.5 g body mass), dark brown Myotis ; dorsal hair tips slightly more golden brown; ventral fur with dark bases of hairs and lighter tips. Colour of face flesh coloured; other bare parts darker brown. Ears relatively short, brown and naked; anterior margin initially straight, then convex leading to a rounded tip; posterior margin deeply notched at mid–height. Tragus brown, straight, and reaching beyond posterior ear notch. Thumb and claw robust. Wing membranes attached close to base of outer toe, on the distal part of the metatarsus. Feet smaller than or equal half tibia length. Tail longer than head and body length combined. Calcar straight, with a very narrow, elongated lobe. Skull globose, with short rostrum and abruptly raised frontal part of braincase, very weak sagittal and moderate lambdoid crests. Dentition relatively weak with second upper premolars small and partly or fully intruded from toothrow. Height of upper and lower canines exceed that of the corresponding third premolars. Lower molars myotodont.
Description: Pelage dense, soft and relatively long at 8 mm on the dorsum; dorsal hairs dark brown, becoming progressively lighter towards the tips. Ventral parts clearly paler, with hairs brown along their proximal middle, becoming lighter, yellowish or creamy towards the tip ( Fig. 16A View FIGURE 16 ). Bare parts, including ears and patagium, dark brown. Face lighter, flesh–coloured and bare around the eyes; muzzle hairier and long whiskers present around the lip fringes. Ears mostly naked except for a few scattered hairs on the inner side, medium–sized and broad, not reaching the nose tip when laid forward, with a conspicuous notch at half height along posterior margin. Tragus straight, with near parallel edges, but anterior margin slightly concave, reaching few millimetres beyond ear notch on the posterior margin ( Fig. 16B View FIGURE 16 ). Wing membranes naked (except the underparts, close to the body), and attached to the distal parts of the metacarpus, near the bases of the outer toe. Feet delicate, approximately half the size of tibia length and covered with sparse hairs along the toes. Uropatagium broad, naked; tail almost fully included in the membrane. Calcar long and straight, extending halfway to the free edge of uropatagium, with a very narrow, elongated, indistinct keel. Tail long slightly longer than the size of head and body length combined.Thumbs relatively long (about 6 mm including claw), about same diameter throughout and terminating with a strong but short claw.
When viewed in profile, the skull has a relatively short rostrum, and an abruptly raising frontal part of braincase ( Figs 17 View FIGURE 17 and 18A View FIGURE 18 ). Braincase globose, with very weak sagittal and moderately developed lambdoid crests. Like in most species of Myotis , dental formula is I 2/3 C 1/1 PM 3/3 M 3/3 = 38 teeth. Teeth rather delicate, upper and lower canines exceed third premolars in height. Upper incisors of comparable height and crown area; both bicuspidate. Short diastema present between incisors and upper canine. Upper canine gracile and angular in section, with distinct medio–labial and antero–lingual groove and wide posterior emargination on the lingual side, a situation akin to My. f. kaguyae (see Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 . of Tsytsulina & Strelkov 2001).
First upper premolar small, similar in height to incisors, and aligned in toothrow; second premolar minute and fully (Pakistani specimen) or partly displaced inwards and still visible in lateral view (Uttarakhand specimen) ( Fig. 17 View FIGURE 17 ). Third premolar and molars more robust, but low. Lower incisors of similar height; the first and second tricuspidate, the third with four cusps. The three lower premolars are in a row, not particularly crowded, the second being shorter than first. Three lower molars robust, taller than upper ones and all myotodont; entoconid much higher than hypoconoid. Mandible robust; angular process short and nearly as long as high; coronoid process low, linked to condyloid process by an almost horizontal ridge.
The baculum is minute, about 0.5 x 0.7 mm. It is shovel shaped and highly convex on the dorsal surface where a well defined and wide medial dorsal ridge is present. The tip tapers abruptly and ends flat; base with a wide, deep, and rounded emargination ( Figs 14D View FIGURE 14 and 19A View FIGURE 19 ).
Comparisons: The long tibia and tail, short and broad ears and a skull with short rostrum, raised frontal parts of braincase and inward displaced second upper premolars of My. himalaicus sp. nov., are typical morphological characters defining taxa in the My. frater species complex ( Tsytsulina & Strelkov 2001). We therefore restrict our comparisons within this group of Myotis species.
Externally, My. himalaicus sp. nov. is easily distinguished from the arid form My. bucharensis by its much darker pelage, both above and below (see e.g., Kazakov et al. 2020) and by its darker bare parts of skin. My. bucharensis also differs by the distinct fronto–labial groove in the upper canine and relatively long rostrum (e.g., CCL> 13 mm; Tsytsulina & Strelkov 2001) vs. without such groove, and shorter rostrum in My. himalaicus sp. nov. (e.g., CCL<12.8 mm; Table 4).
The Taiwan endemic My. soror is distinctive by having a rich cinnamon and grizzled fur, a tragus that does not reach the posterior notch of ear, and shorter (<20 mm) tibia ( Ruedi et al. 2015).
The thick and dark brown fur of My. himalaicus sp. nov. is, however, similar to the more temperate–distributed taxa My. frater and My. longicaudatus ( Kazakov et al. 2025) . Nevertheless, based on field measurement reported in Chakravarty et al. (2020), overall size of My. himalaicus sp. nov. (e.g., FA 39.5–43 mm, tibia 20.1–21.6 mm) is larger than that of My. longicaudatus (FA typically <40 mm, tibia <20.5 mm; Tsytsulina & Strelkov 2001). My. frater also has a shorter forearm length (FA <40 mm) as compared with My. himalaicus sp. nov.
The distal part of the baculum of My. himalaicus sp. nov. ( Fig. 19A View FIGURE 19 ) is unique for the species–group having a deep and wide emargination (versus much more reduced posterior emargination in the other species; see Fig. 5 in Tsytsulina & Strelkov 2001; Figs 19 View FIGURE 19 B-F).
The short sequence of the COI mitochondrial gene obtained from the holotype is almost identical (one single transition mutation) to longer sequences reported previously for My. himalaicus sp. nov. (GB MN339184 View Materials and MN714904 View Materials , labelled as My. cf. frater, Chakravarty et al. 2020 ) and divergent from any other homologous sequences in the frater group (and of any Myotis ), except bucharensis , which has not been investigated for this gene.According to another mitochondrial locus (CYTB), My. bucharensis is phylogenetically sister to My. longicaudatus ( Kazakov et al. 2020) , whereas according to the COI marker, My. himalaicus sp. nov. appears sister to My. soror ( Chakravarty et al. 2020) or more basal to the whole group ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 ). The resolution of current molecular reconstructions is, however, still insufficient to place this new species in a definitive phylogenetic position within the frater species complex.
Distribution and ecology: My. himalaicus sp. nov. is the only species of the frater complex known so far to inhabit the Indian subcontinent.Apparently, it is endemic to the southern slopes of the Western Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountains and recorded so far only in Uttarakhand, India and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. According to Chakravarty et al. (2020) My. himalaicus sp. nov. was caught in primary oak and oak forest edge in Mandal, whereas in Devalsari, a female was caught at the intersection of scrub–covered hills and cedar forest. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa record came from an old–grown pine forest. Going by these records, it occurs in a variety of forested habitats at elevations between 1500–2300 m but appears uncommon. Other species of bats caught in the same area on the nights when the holotype of My. himalaicus sp. nov. was caught include My. muricola , Mu. cyclotis , Ep. pachyomus and Pi. babu . The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa specimen was mist–netted together with Mu. tubinaris . Nothing is known about its natural history besides that none of the individuals caught during July in Pakistan and May in Uttarakhand were in breeding condition. The echolocation calls recorded from four released individuals in Mandal emitted frequency modulated calls starting at 96.8 ± 3.15 kHz and ending at 47.9 ± 3.13 kHz, with maximum energy at 68.0 ± 3.86 kHz ( Chakravarty et al. 2020). Its calls are hard to distinguish from the syntopic My. muricola .
R |
Departamento de Geologia, Universidad de Chile |
V |
Royal British Columbia Museum - Herbarium |
COI |
University of Coimbra Botany Department |
HNHM |
Hungarian Natural History Museum (Termeszettudomanyi Muzeum) |
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
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