Japanese Pipistrelle
Vespertilio abramus Temminck, 1840: 232; pl. 58; Nagasaki, Kyushu, Japan
Previous record from Myanmar
Shan State: Namkam (Das and Sinha, 1995). There are no new records.
Descriptive characters
This is a medium-sized pipistrelle with a forearm length of 31.6–34.4 mm in specimens referred to this species from Myanmar and India by Das and Sinha (1995) and 29.1 and 30.6 mm in two extralimital specimens from Vietnam (Table 4) (no local material was seen by the current authors: FA = 30.9–31.2 mm in Hendrichsen et al., 2001). It has a very long penis (Bates et al., 1997). The dorsal pelage is grey-brown with dark hair roots. The ventral surface has pale buffy-grey hair tips and dark roots. The fifth metacarpal is about equal in length to the third and fourth. The baculum, which is long, 8.9–12.0 mm in extralimital specimens, is thin and sinuous with a characteristic double curve when viewed laterally (Fig. 2C). The base is slightly bilobate and the tip has an indication towards being bifid (Bates et al., 1997). The skull has thin zygomata without processes. The second incisor (I3) exceeds the height of the secondary cusp of the first incisor (I2) and is about equal in crown area. The upper canine (C1) has
a secondary cusp. The first upper premolar (P2) is about equal in crown area to I2 and is intruded from the toothrow. The first lower premolar (P2) is about two-thirds to three- quarters the crown area of the second (P4).
Similar species
The skull of P. abramus cannot be dis- tinguished from P. coromandra by either size or morphology. However, the penis and baculum of P. abramus greatly exceed those of P. coromandra in length. The shape, but not the length of the baculum, appears to be the only reliable character to distinguish be- tween P. abramus and P. paterculus.
Ecology
Nothing is known of the ecology of P. abramus in Myanmar. The only known specimen was collected on 25 November, 1926 at Namkam (Das and Sinha, 1995). This area is currently characterised by for- ested hills, with bamboo in the more dis- turbed areas and agricultural land, primarily rice paddy, in the Lengchuan Jiang (River) valley (data from the Yangon Univer- sity/Harrison Institute expedition to the area in March, 2002).