Neoromicia nana (Peters, 1852)

Fig. 44 C–D

Vespertilio nanus Peters, 1852: 63 .

* Pipistrellus culex Thomas, 1911: 458 .

* Pipistrellus nanus nanus Peters, 1852 .

Although they followed Koopman (1965) in many of his other conclusions, Hayman et al. (1966: 52) did not follow Koopman’s view (1965: 12) on culex, which he tentatively considered a subspecies of P. stampflii (Jentink, 1888), but of which he also stated that it possibly only represents a small-sized population of P. nanus . Rosevear (1965: 268), Koopman (1966: 160) and Kock (1969: 170) considered culex to be a synonym of P. nanus . Over the past few decades Vespertilio nanus has changed genus a number of times (Happold 2013 ah: 639): Pipistrellus, Neoromicia, Hypsugo . The current assignment to Neoromicia was based on karyotype data (Volleth et al. 2001: 44; Kearney et al. 2002: 55).

Hayman et al. (1966: 52, 53–55, maps 73, 76) reported N. nana from all over the CRB area, and some of the gaps have been filled in with additional specimens. The only exception seems to be the central part of the DRC (the area around the Salonga National Park), but that might possibly be attributed to the impenetrability of the region rather than the real absence of the species. The SDM map looks very similar to the one presented by Happold (2013 ah: 640), although we show a number of hatched areas where the climatic circumstances might not be optimal for the species, e.g., the central forest area in the DRC (but see above), the border area between the DRC and Angola, eastern Angola and western Tanzania.