Scotophilus nux Thomas, 1904

Cakenberghe, Victor Van, Tungaluna, Guy-Crispin Gembu, Akawa, Prescott Musaba, Seamark, Ernest & Verheyen, Erik, 2017, The bats of the Congo and of Rwanda and Burundi revisited (Mammalia: Chiroptera), European Journal of Taxonomy 382 (382), pp. 1-327 : 82-84

Scotophilus nux Thomas, 1904

Fig. 37 E–F

Thomas (1915: 468) already mentioned “The conspicuous difference between the colour of S. nux and that of all forms of S. nigrita makes me now think that it should be recognized as a distinct species, and not merely a subspecies of the older known form.” This view, however, was ignored by most subsequent authors, until it was resurrected by Robbins (1983: 19) and Robbins et al. (1985: 53, 71).

Hayman et al. (1966: 57) only mentioned specimens from the northeastern part of the DRC (Bas- Uélé, Haut-Uélé and Ituri Provinces). One additional specimen was collected in Kongolo (Tanganyika Province) in southeastern DRC. Van Cakenberghe & Happold (2013j: 681) indicate that the species is recorded from the rainforest and the northern and eastern rainforest-savanna mosaics from Sierra Leone in the west to Cameroon, and from northwestern DRC to western Kenya. We agree with this distribution, although it occurs further to the south in the DRC than previously accepted. The climatic data used for the SDM map confirm that the gap between Cameroon and the DRC is probably due to insufficient sampling, as suggested by Van Cakenberghe & Happold. They also confirm the gap between southwestern Ghana and southern Nigeria, which might be linked to the “ Dahomey Gap”, but further investigation in that area is needed to confirm this.

Figures

Fig. 37. Distribution maps. A–B. Scotophilus leucogaster (Cretzschmar, 1826). C–D. Scotophilus nigrita (Schreber, 1774). E–F. Scotophilus nux Thomas, 1904. A, C, E. Distribution in the CRB area. B, D, F. Pan-African distribution.