First distributional record of Greater false vampire bat (Lyroderma lyra Geoffroy, 1810) from the Dhubri district of Assam, Northeast India

Bats are found all over the world except Arctic and Antarctic regions and a few isolated oceanic islands. Northeast India has 28 genera and 62 species and subspecies of bats. The state of Assam has a total of 39 different bat species under 16 genera. On 12.04.2017, one male Greater false vampire bat Lyroderma lyra  Geoffroy, 1810 (former ‘Megaderma lyra’) was collected from a classroom near the old Zoology Department (Latitude: N 26⁰ 1′ 28.1136″; Longitude: E 89⁰ 58′ 9.9912″) of B. N. College campus of Dhubri district of western Assam which lies in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, India (South Asia). It comes under the family ‘Megadermatidae’ which is an ancient family of carnivorous bats. An individual was a robust one with a forearm length of 66.2 mm and 93 gms of body mass. Some of the other important morphometric measurements recorded were as Length of the ear (E)-30mm, Length of head and body (HB)- 82 mm,  Length of the penis (p)-9mm, Height of noseleaf (nslf)-9.5mm, Wing span (wsp)-423mm and the length of the tragus (Tr)-16mm respectively. The structure of the ears was found to be large ovals joined medially to the forehead region. The tragus of each ear was slender and distinctly bifid. The noseleaf was found to be erected and elongated. Previously the species was reported from the Tinsukia district of Upper Assam followed by the Kamrup and Goalpara districts of the Lower Brahmaputra Valley of Assam. The current place of occurrence, i.e., the ‘Dhubri district’ has been established as a new distributional record for the species from the western part of Assam of Northeast India, a global biodiversity hotspot.