Neoromicia nana (Peters, 1852)

Banana bat

Vespertilio nanus Peters, 1852: 63; Inhambane, Mozambique.

New material

HZM.321.40186, ♂, 1 August, 2012, Airport, Lekoumou, 2°46.766’S, 13°33.594’E. Previous records are included in Appendix I; the known distribution corresponds to localities 17, 29, and 39 in Fig. 1. This species is apparently common wherever banana plants are abundant (Happold and Happold, 2013).

Description

A very small, nondescript species with a forearm length of 31.1 mm (Table 2). The soles of the feet and base of the thumb are slightly swollen to assist the bat when moving inside smooth banana leaves. In the ear, the tragus has a virtually straight anterior border, a rounded tip, and an angular posterior border, without a basal notch (Fig. 8E). The skull is small (GTL = 11.72 mm) (Table 3); the braincase is distinctly elevated above the rostrum, with a marked concavity in the interorbital region (Fig. 12B). The first upper incisor (I 2) is narrow and small with a notch (indicative of a secondary cusp) at about two-thirds its height; the second upper incisor (I 3) is also narrow, unicuspid and about three-quarters the height of I 2 (Fig. 12B). The first upper premolar (P 2) is minute and situated slightly internal to the toothrow but is visible when the skull is viewed laterally (Fig. 12B). The first lower premolar (P 2) is about two-thirds the crown area and height of the second (P 4). The baculum has a short, slightly curved shaft, a flattened, broader tip and a bilobate base (Fig. 11C).

Taxonomic notes

Geographical variation in N. nana seems little understood (Rosevear, 1965; Monadjem et al., 2010) and currently all specimens from Congo are referred to the nominate subspecies (Happold and Happold, 2013).