Pipistrellus permixtus Aellen 1957

30.

Dar-es-Salaam Pipistrelle

Pipistrellus permixtus

French: Pipistrelle de Tanzanie / German: Dar-es-Salaam-Zwergfledermaus / Spanish: Pipistrela de Tanzania

Other common names: Dar-es-Salaam Pipistrelle Bat, Tanzania Pipistrelle

Taxonomy. Pipistrellus (Pipistrellus) permixtus Aellen, 1957,

“ Dar es Salam [sic], Tanganyika [= Tanzania].”

Taxonomy of P. permixtus is currently uncertain. It seems to be related to Palearctic Pipistrellus, and because the only known specimen was found at port Dar-es-Salaam, there are speculations that it might have been a stowaway on a ship from some Palearctic region. Monotypic.

Distribution. Known only from type specimen at Dar-es-Salaam, EC Tanzania.

Descriptive notes. Head-body ¢. 42 mm, tail ¢. 33 mm, ear c.12-5 mm, hindfoot 6 mm, forearm 33-5 mm (type specimen). Pelage color of the Dar-es-Salaam Pipistrelle is uncertain because color of type specimen was lost before the species was described because it was preserved in “spirits.” Individual hairs are known to be bicolored; ventral pelage is also unknown butis reported as not pure white (probably lighter than dorsum). Ears are relatively short, with rounded tips; tragus is about one-third the ear length, broadestjust above middle of anterior margin, and sickle-shaped, with anterior margin concave, posterior margin smoothly convex, and tip rounded. Thumbis relatively long. Uropatagium reaches to very tip oftail; postcalcarial lobe is large and well developed. Skull is of medium size for an African Pipistrellus; supraorbital region is not so expanded that dorsal surface of rostrum has pentagonal outline; forehead region is moderately concave; I? is bicuspid; I’ is about two-thirds the height of I*; P* is well developed, visible above gum, and displaced lingually according to V. Aellen in 1957 but was deemed to be within tooth row by K. F. Koopman in 1994 after observing the holotype; C,is relatively robust; and lower molars are nyctalodont.

Habitat. Potentially dry coastal forests, which surrounds the area where type specimen was captured.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. No information.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. The Dar-es-Salaam Pipistrelle is known from only a single specimen collected at a port in eastern Tanzania in 1905. Surveys are needed to determine its status and relationship to other species of Pipistrellus.

Bibliography. ACR (2018), Aellen (1957), Hill & Harrison (1987), Jacobs et al. (2008e), Koopman (1994), Van Cakenberghe & Happold (2013m).