Rhinolophus cervenyi, Benda & Uvizl & Eiseb & Avenant, 2024

Benda, Petr, Uvizl, Marek, Eiseb, Seth J. & Avenant, Nico L., 2024, On the systematic position of the horseshoe bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Lesotho, Mammalia (Warsaw, Poland) 88 (3), pp. 239-258 : 250-254

Rhinolophus cervenyi sp. n.

Synonymy: R. clivosus Cretzschmar 1826 [partim]: Lynch and Watson 1990: 532; Lynch 1994: 190; Taylor 1998: 35; Taylor 2005: 338; Monadjem et al. 2010: 188, 556; Benda and Vallo 2012: 93; Monadjem et al. 2020: 216, 659.

Type material: Holotype: ♀ ad. ( NMP 97760 , field No. pb5596, alcoholic specimen with skull extracted), Lesotho, Sehlabathebe National Park , old park lodge, 17 February 2013, leg. N. Avenant, P. Benda & J. Červený. – Paratypes: 11 ♀♀ ad., 1 ♂ sad. ( NMB 12731–12736 , NMP 97756–97759 , field Nos. pb5586–5595, alcoholic specimens with skull extracted; NMB 12730 , NMP 97761 , field Nos. pb5585, pb5597, whole alcoholic specimens), locality, date, and collectors as in the holotype .

Type locality: Kingdom of Lesotho, Sehlabathebe National Park , small cave near the old park lodge, 29°52′02″S, 29°07′15″E, 2417 m a. s. l. ( Figures 7 , 8 , and 9) .

Description: Rhinolophus cervenyi sp. n. is a medium-sized horseshoe bat, in most respects similar to the large-sized forms of R. clivosus Cretzschmar, 1826 and medium-sized forms of R. acrotis von Heuglin, 1861 from the Middle East and Africa, including the structure and relative size of the nose-leaf and the ear size. Forearm length 48–56 mm, ear length 22.8–23.6 mm, horseshoe width 8.3–9.1 mm, condylocanine length of skull 18.4–19.5 mm, length of the upper tooth-row 7.0– 7.9 mm.

The horseshoe of R. cervenyi sp. n. is relatively wide ( Figure 10 ), the connecting process of the nose-leaf is high and rounded in side view, the sella is constricted in the middle, tip of the sella is pointed, lancet is hairy and triangular in shape. One medial groove is present in the lower lip ( Figure 10 ).

The dorsal pelage of R. cervenyi sp. n. is pale brown, ventral pelage is very pale brown to beige ( Figures 9 and 10 ); in juveniles and subadult animals, the dorsal pelage is grey with very weak brown tinge on cheeks, ventral pelage pale grey ( Figure 9 ). Nose-leaf and ears are greyish brown, distal parts darker than the proximal, which are pinkish in tinge; in juveniles and subadult animals, the nose-leaf and ears are grey ( Figures 9 and 10 ). Wing membranes are greyish-brown or dark greyish-brown.

Skull is relatively narrow (LaZ 10.1–11.1 mm; LaZ/LCc 0.546 –0.585), rostral part of the skull inluding the nasal swellings is medium wide (LaInf 5.2–6.0 mm; CC 5.1– 5.9 mm; LaInf/LCc 0.282 –0.313), and relatively very short ( CM 3 /LCc 0.385 –0.407; Figure 11 ). The braincase is relatively medium-wide, but relatively low (ANc 6.0– 6.7 mm; ANc/LCc 0.319 –0.362), the sagittal crest is low and rather undeveloped, infraorbital foramen is large and infraorbital bar is long and thin ( Figure 11 ). Nasal swellings are rather undeveloped, the posterior median swellings are slightly longer and narrower than the anterior median swellings, the lateral swellings (both anterior and posterior) are smaller than the median swellings, the frontal depression is shallow ( Figure 10 ).

The teeth are relatively weak ( Figure 12 ); upper molars are relatively narrow (LaM 1 /LM 1 1.345 –1.454; LaM 3 / LM 3 1.502–1.1.663), large upper premolars (P 4) are relatively wide and short in the mesio-distal aspect ( LP 4 /LaP 4 0.585 –0.681), with a well marked concavity in the distal margin of talon ( LP 4 3/LP 4 1 0.451 –0.563). Large lower premolars (P 4) are absolutely small ( LP 4 1.06–1.23 mm) and, in relation to the size of smaller lower premolars (P 2), very small ( LP 2 0.73–0.87 mm), the area of P 2 is larger more than a half of the area of P 4 ( LP 2 × LaP 2 /LP 4 × LaP 4 0.503 –0.691).

The minute first upper premolar (P 2) is present ( LP 2 0.29–0.40 mm), it is positioned labially, the upper canine and large premolar (P 4) are not in contact with each other but only with the minute premolar (P 2; Figure 12 ). The minute second lower premolar (P 3) is mostly present (in 72.7 % of the type series, n = 11), it is very small ( LP 3 0.17–0.25 mm) and lies out of the premolar tooth-row, the first (P 2) and third (P 4) lower premolars are in direct contact in most cases (63.6 % of the type series; Figure 12 ).

The baculum of R. cervenyi sp. n. remains unexplored, no adult male specimen was available for examination.

Dimensions of the holotype: See Table 3 .

Mitochondrial sequence of the holotype: (partial sequence – 1057 bp – of the mitochondrial gene for cytochrome b; GenBank Accession Number PP104816; 5′ end). cat gac caa cat tcg caa gtc tca ccc act att caa aat cat caa cga ctc gtt cgt tga cct acc cgc ccc atc aag tat ctc ttc ctg atg aaa ctt cgg atc tct cct agg aat ctg cct agc cat cca aat tct cac cgg act gtt cct agc aat aca cta cac atc aga cac cgc tac agc ctt cca ctc cgt gac cca cat ttg ccg aga tgt caa cta cgg ctg aat cct gcg cta cct cca tgc caa cgg agc ctc cat att ctt tat ctg cct gtt cct aca cgt agg acg agg aat cta tta tgg ctc cta tac att ctc aga aac atg aaa cat cgg aat cat cct cct ctt cgc tgt cat agc cac agc att cat agg cta tgt act ccc atg agg cca aat atc ctt ctg agg ggc aac agt tat cac aaa cct cct ctc agc tat tcc ata cgt cgg aac aac tct agt tga atg agt ctg agg cgg gtt ctc agt tga taa agc tac act cac ccg att ctt cgc cct aca ctt cct ttt acc att cat tat tgc agc tat agt cat agt cca cct act ttt cct cca cga aac agg atc aaa caa ccc aac cgg aat ccc atc aga cgc aga cat aat ccc att cca ccc cta cta cac cat caa aga cat cct agg cct cgt act aat act aat agc act act gtc cct agt act att tgc ccc cga cct act ggg tga ccc aga caa cta cac ccc agc caa ccc act aaa cac ccc acc cca cat taa acc aga gtg gta ctt tct att tgc cta cgc aat cct acg ctc aat ccc aaa taa gct cgg cgg agt tgt agc cct agt cct atc cat cct tat cct agc tgt cat ccc act act cca cac atc aaa aca acg cag cat gac att tcg acc cct aag cca atg cct att ctg act cct agt ggc aga cct cct cac act aac ctg aat cgg agg cca acc tgt cga gca ccc att tat cat cat cgg aca act agc ctc cat tct ata ctt cct aat tat cct cgt cct aat acc act tgc agg cat cgc aga aaa cca tct atg aaa tga aga.

ZooBank No: http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:17948A1D-1031-4951-994F-CC44F96CC21C .

Derivatio nominis: Eponymous; named in honour of Professor Jaroslav Červený (Prague, Czech Republic) who significantly contributed to the research of the African bat fauna, and mainly, discovered the bat colony that provided the type series of R. cervenyi sp. n. Professor Červený took and provided all here presented photographs of the new species and its type locality.

Distribution: R. cervenyi sp. n. is known from 12 sites in Lesotho ( Lynch and Watson 1990, Lynch 1994; original data) and from two sites in South Africa (western Free State, south-eastern Northern Cape), see Figure 7 and Appendices 1 and 2 for particular localities and their chracteristics. The localities are situated in the altitude range of 1302–2658 m (mean altitude of the collection sites 2047.4 m), more than half of them (57.1 %) lie at altitudes above 2000 m a. s. l.

Echolocation: According to the only available data ( Maluleke et al. 2017) from the Uintjiesburg Farm ( South Africa), the resting frequency in the echolocation calls of R. cervenyi sp. n. was in the range of 83.3–86.2 kHz (mean 84.9 kHz; recordings from 22 females; Maluleke et al. 2017: 7353). However, these data need a confirmation from the Lesotho populations.

Acknowledgments: We thank Paula Jenkins, Daphne Hill, and Louise Tomsett (BMNH), Leigh Richards (DM), Buyiswa Mahala (KM), Guiliano Doria (MSNG), Paolo Agnelli (MZUF), Friederike Spitzenberger & Barbara Herzig (NMW), †Dieter Kock & †Gerhard Storch (SMF), Teresa Kearney (TM), and Rainer Hutterer (ZFMK), for providing us the access to the museum specimens under their care. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on early version of this study.

Research ethics: Not applicable.

Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

Competing interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

Research funding: The preparation of this contribution was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (# DKRVO 2024– 2028/6.I. a, National Museum, 00023272) and by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic (# CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000803 financed by OP RDE).

Data availability: Not applicable.

Figures

Figure 7: Map of localities of the examined specimens of Rhinolophus acrotis (diamonds), R. damarensis (squares) and R. cervenyi sp. n. (circles) in southern Africa (A) and in Lesotho (B); L, Lesotho; M, Mozambique; SZ, Eswatini. Open symbols – localities of origin of the specimens examined by the molecular genetic methods (except those of R. acrotis), numbers at the symbols correspond with the mitochondrial haplotype numbers as in Figure 5 and Table S1, number script denotes the lineage assignation: regular – Namibia1, bold – Namibia2, italics – South Africa & Lesotho bats. Small letters denote known localities of R. cervenyi sp. n.: Lesotho (B): a – Ha Mokoto, b – Ha Natla, c – Hermon, d – Mateanong, e – Moqotoane, f – Mount Moorosi, g – Nkokamele, h – Phallang, i – Roma, cave, j – Sehlabathebe NP, lodge, k – Semonkong, l – Ski Lodge, Oxbow; South Africa (A): m – Jagersfontein, n – Uintjiesburg.

Figure 8: General view of the type locality of Rhinolophus cervenyi sp. n.: upper parts of the Sehlabathebe National Park, Lesotho (photo by J. Červený).

Figure 9: Type locality of Rhinolophus cervenyi sp. n.: small cave near the old park lodge in the Sehlabathebe National Park, Lesotho,and the bat colony containing the type series (photo by J. Červený).

Figure 10: Portrait and a frontal (middle) and lateral views (right) of the horseshoe of Rhinolophus cervenyi sp. n. (photo by J. Červený).

Figure 11: Skull in lateral view (top) and in dorsal view (below) of Rhinolophus cervenyi sp. n. (top – NMP 97760, holotype; below – NMP 97758, paratype). Scale bars: 5 mm.

Figure 12: Occlusal views on the mesial part of the left upper tooth-row (C–M1) and the right lower toothrow (I –M) of Rhinolophus cervenyi sp.n. 3 1 (NMP 97760, holotype). Scale bar: 2 mm.