Myonycteris leptodon (Dobson, 1878)

Decher, Jan, Hoffmann, Anke, Schaer, Juliane, N Orris, Ryan W., Kadjo, Blaise, Astrin, Jonas, Monadjem, Ara & Hutterer, Rainer, 2015, Bat diversity in the Simandou Mountain Range of Guinea, with the description of a new white-winged vespertilionid, Acta Chiropterologica 17 (2), pp. 255-282 : 263

Myonycteris leptodon (Dobson, 1878)

New material

ZFMK 2008.0278, ♀, FC, 7 March 2008.

The single female was caught low in the canopy net at FC. Fahr and Ebigbo (2004) reported capturing three individuals of this species at BK during the 2002 RAP. Other Guinée Forestière records are from Mont Richard Molard (Nimba), Mount Béro, Ziama, Mount Nimba ( Verschuren, 1976; Brosset, 1984; Bützler, 1994; Lamotte and Roy, 1998; Fahr et al., 2006; Denys et al., 2013) and a specimen from the Parc National du Haute Niger to the north of Simandou ( ZFMK 1997.0419; Ziegler et al., 2002). On the Liberian side of Mount Nimba M. leptodon was one of the most abundant fruit bats recorded at all altitudes up to 1,350 m ( Coe, 1975; Verschuren, 1976; Wolton et al., 1982). This species was shown to be migratory in Côte d’Ivoire ( Thomas, 1983), with a migratory pattern following the shift of the intertropical convergence zone and resultant rain patterns. Both sexes migrate north at the beginning of the rainy season but females returned earlier to the rainforest zone. We follow recent molecular systematic evidence by Nesi et al. (2013) in elevating the West African subspecies leptodon of M. torquatus to species level.

Conservation status

Least Concern. Population trend considered stable ( IUCN, 2015).