Published October 31, 2019 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Harpiocephalus harpia

Description

324.

Hairy-winged Bat

Harpiocephalus harpia

French: Murine a ailes velues / German: Haarfllgelfledermaus / Spanish: Ratonero de alas pilosas

Other common names: Lesser Hairy-winged Bat

Taxonomy. Vespertilio harpia Temminck, 1840, “

I'lle de Java [Indonesia] ... les caverns de la partie sud du Volcan de Guédé [= caves of the southern part of Mount Gede].” Based on lectotype selection, restricted by A. M. Husson in 1955 10.*S.E. side of Mount Gede, W. Java.”

Genetically, Harpiocephalus appears to be sister to the rest of Murininae or imbedded within Murina and related to M. kontumensis, or to M. leucogaster and M. shuipuensis; exact placement currently uncertain. The form mordax is a synonym; it has sometimes been considered a distinct species based on differing skull size, but this difference actually represents sexual dimorphism, the name mordax having been applied to the larger females. Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution. H.h.harpiaTemminck,1840—MalayPeninsula,Sumatra,Java,Bali,Lombok,andthePhilippines(Luzon,Leyte,Negros,Mindanao,andPalawan).

H.h.lasyurusHodgson,1847—NEIndia(Sikkim,WestBengal,Assam,Meghalaya,andMizoram),Bhutan,andNWMyanmar.

H.h.madrassiusThomas,1923—SIndia(KeralaandTamilNadu).

H. h. rufulus G. M. Allen, 1913 — SC & SE China (Yunnan, Guangdong, and Fujian), Vietnam (including Cat Ba I), N Laos, C Myanmar, and Thailand.

Also Taiwan (subspecies as yet undetermined).

Descriptive notes. Head—body 57-75 mm, tail 40-50 mm, ear 15-18 mm, hindfoot 10-14 mm, forearm 44-54- 9 mm; weight 12-30- 2 g. Males are distinctly smaller than females. Fur is thick and soft; dorsally bright orange (with dark-based hairs) to dull orangish brown (with gray-based hairs), with bright orange individuals commoner in Malaysia and the Philippines; ventrally lighter and grayer. Dorsal pelage extends densely onto wing bases, legs, and feet, and entire uropatagium and rest of wings and forearmsis lightly haired. Entire face is furred except long, protuberant nostrils (similar to those of Murina); ears and face are dark brown whereas membranes are blackish brown. Ears are evenly rounded on anterior and posterior borders and generally funnel-shaped; tragus is long, pointed, slightly convex anteriorly, concave on posterior border, and with posterior basal notch. Baculum is forked distally a little before midpoint, the two prongs resembling curved plier handles, being broadest in the middle; main shaft is short with a dorsal ridge and ventral groove. Skull is robust with short, broad, deep rostrum; zygomata are long and relatively strong, with a slight jugal bone; lambdoidal crests are well developed; tympanic bullae and cochleae are small; basioccipital pits are shallow; dentition is robust with massive canines; upper molars are modified and reduced, essentially missing mesostyles, the metacone being the largest cusp; M” is extremely small, being represented by a small “scalelike” tooth that lies against M?; talonids of all three lower molars are reduced. Dental formulais12/3,C1/1,P 2/2, M 3/3 (x2) = 34. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 44 and FN = 52 (Vietnam, Taiwan, and Guangdong, China) and apparently n = 40 (Thailand).

Habitat. Understory of lowland dipterocarp and hill forests and some disturbed areas in South-east Asia; also montane forests and valleys with tall trees near water in South Asia. In the Philippines, the species occurs in primary and disturbed lowland, montane, and mossy forests. Recorded at elevations of 300-2480 m in the Philippines, and 185-1538 m in India.

Food and Feeding. Hairy-winged Bats are known to feed on beetles.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. Call shape is a steep FM sweep with start frequency of 111-5 kHz, end frequency 32-5 kHz, peak frequency 57 kHz, and duration 1 millisecond, based on single recording in Vietnam. Peak frequency of 78-3 kHz was recorded in Guangdong, China.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Hairywinged Bat is widespread butis suffering habitat destruction from agricultural expansion and deforestation throughout its range.

Bibliography. Bates & Harrison (1997), Chen Bocheng etal. (2015), Csorba, Bumrungsri, Francis, Bates, Rosell-Ambal et al. (2008), Das (1986b), Francis (2008a), Francis et al. (2010), Heaney, Balete, Dolar et al. (1998), Heaney, Balete & Rickart (2016), Hill & Francis (1984), Husson (1955), Kruskop (2013a), Lin Liangkong et al. (2006), Matveev (2005), McBee etal. (1986), Nguyen Truong Son etal. (2015), Smith & Xie Yan (2008), Zhou Quan et al. (2014).

Notes

Published as part of Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier, 2019, Vespertilionidae, pp. 716-981 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 9 Bats, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on page 907, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6397752

Files

Files (5.3 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:ce015caa7deb4dca61f0eddcb8a0f59e
5.3 kB Download

System files (21.8 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:d87471fbf4fc5d328bff9e496b037127
21.8 kB Download

Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
Temminck
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Order
Chiroptera
Family
Vespertilionidae
Genus
Harpiocephalus
Species
harpia
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Harpiocephalus harpia (Temminck, 1840) sec. Wilson & Mittermeier, 2019