Mimetillus moloneyi (Thomas, 1891)

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 : 266-267

Mimetillus moloneyi (Thomas, 1891)

New material

ZFMK 2008.0303, ♂, FC, 7 March 2008.

Fifteen individuals of this vespertilionid were captured in lowland closed evergreen forest at FC in the canopy net over a creek. This species was not captured during the 2002 RAP (Fahr and Ebigbo, 2004), but the 2003 RAP reported it from “gallery forest of the Kpogo River” at Mount Béro ( Fahr et al., 2006: 172), and these authors also mentioned unpublished museum records from Ziéla, Mount Nimba, and one specimen from Sérédou, Ziama as being the first records from Guinea. Monadjem and Fahr (2007) also mention three specimens in the Smithsonian Institution ( USNM) from Gola Forest in Liberia. Most West African records appear to be from the closed evergreen forest with some records along the semi-evergreen forest as far north as Sakpa (8°52’N, 2°21’W) in Ghana ( Schmidt et al., 2008). This species is known to roost in crevices under tree bark as well as in roofs of houses ( Fahr, 2013 c). Our 15 captures from FC point to a substantial roost somewhere upstream towards the Foko Ridge. According to Fahr (2013 c) these specimens belong to the subspecies M. m. moloneyi .

Conservation status

Least Concern. Considered widespread and not rare but the population trend is unknown ( IUCN, 2015).