New Records of Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Assam, Northeastern India with a Distribution List of Bat Fauna of the State
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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication New records of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Assam, northeastern India with a distribution list of bat fauna of the state Ananda Ram Boro, Prasanta Kumar Saikia & Utam Saikia 26 April 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 5 | Pages: 11606–11612 10.11609/jot.3871.10.5.11606-11612 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies and Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints contact <[email protected]> Publisher & Host Partners Member Threatened Taxa New records of bats from Assam Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 April 2018 | 10(5): 11606–11612 Boro et al. New records of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Assam, northeastern India with a distribution list of ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) bat fauna of the state Short Communication Short ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Ananda Ram Boro 1, Prasanta Kumar Saikia 2 & Utam Saikia 3 OPEN ACCESS 1 Department of Zoology, Pandu College, Pandu Port Road, Maligaon, Guwahat, Assam 781012, India 2 Department of Zoology, Guahat University, Jalukbari, Guwahat, Assam 781014, India 3 Zoological Survey of India, North Eastern Regional Centre, Risa Colony, Shillong, Meghalaya 793003, India 1 [email protected],2 [email protected],3 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: Specimen based records of two vespertlionid bats namely species richness in the region would be undoubtedly Pipistrellus ceylonicus and Tylonycteris fulvida are provided for the frst an underestmate. In the pre independence period tme from the state of Assam in northeastern India. Based on review of existng literature and examinatons of museum specimens, we also (before 1947), most of the small mammalian collectons furnish a checklist of the bat fauna of Assam with distributon, which in the erstwhile Assam were made outside the present includes 32 species in 17 genera. politcal boundary of Assam State, i.e., Khasi Hills Keywords: Checklist, Chiroptera, new records, northeastern India, (Meghalaya), Lushai Hills (Mizoram) and the Dafa and Vespertlionidae. Mishmi Hills (Arunachal Pradesh). During the Mammal Survey conducted by Bombay Natural History Society (1911–1923), however, some areas of eastern and The northeastern region of India exhibits exceptonal western Assam were surveyed. The report of the above mammalian richness including over 70 bat species some survey recorded 15 species of bats from the current of which have been described or reported only recently politcal boundary of the state (Hinton & Lindsay 1926). (Sinha 1999; Bates & Harrison 1997; Thabah & Bates In the subsequent period, very litle informaton was 2002; Ruedi et al. 2012a,b; Saikia et al. 2017; Thong et generated on diversity and distributon of the bat fauna al. 2018). Although there is no consolidated account of Assam except for Kurup (1968) and Sinha (1999), the on the bat fauna of Assam, bat diversity of the state is former dealing with the mammalian fauna of Assam as a apparently not very high comprising around 30 recorded whole and the later providing a consolidated account of species (Bates & Harrison 1997; Sinha 1999; Boro et al. the bats of northeastern India. Twenty-eight species of 2013; Boro & Saikia 2015). But considering the lack of bats from Assam fnd menton in the monographic work feld studies for documentng the diversity, distributon of Bates & Harrison (1997). Of late, a few species have and status of the bat fauna of the state, the reported been added to the bat fauna of Assam (Boro et al. 2013; DOI: htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3871.10.5.11606-11612 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:37E5C746-A41C-4D20-99FB-E34E78752CB9 Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publicaton: 26 April 2018 (online & print) Manuscript details: Ms # 3871 | Received 31 October 2017 | Final received 14 March 2018 | Finally accepted 11 April 2018 Citaton: Boro, A.R., P.K. Saikia & U. Saikia (2018). New records of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Assam, northeastern India with a distributon list of bat fauna of the state. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(5): 11606–11612; htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3871.10.5.11606-11612 Copyright: © Boro et al. 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproducton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgement: U.S. expresses his grattude to Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata and Ofcer-in-Charge, Zoological Survey of India, Shillong for insttutonal support and encouragement. Excellent feld assistances rendered by Bharat Boro and Staf of ZSI Shillong is also greatly appreciated. Samarjit Ojha of Nowgong Girls’ College is acknowledged for preparing the distributon map. 11606 New records of bats from Assam Boro et al. Boro & Saikia 2015). But no up to date checklist of the is primarily based on published literature including bat fauna of Assam exists tll date. In this communicaton, the Chiroptera catalogue of Zoological Survey of India, we provide specimen-based records of two species from Kolkata (Ghosh 2008). The chiropteran collecton from Assam, namely Pipistrellus ceylonicus (Kelaart) and Assam in ZSIS was also examined and the informaton Tylonycteris fulvida (Blyth), which represent additons incorporated which was supplemented by author’s feld to the bat fauna of the state. Additonally, we also observatons in various parts of western Assam between furnish a checklist of the bats of the state with recorded August 2012 and September 2017. In view of recent localites. Our compiled checklist includes 34 species taxonomic revisions and species delimitatons (Benda from 17 genera (Table 2), which is primarily derived from & Gaisler 2015), published records of palearctc species published informaton supplemented by specimens like Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Pipistrellus kuhlii from Assam deposited at Zoological Survey of India, Shillong (ZSIS). are omited from the present account. The acronyms of measurements are: Head and body Materials and Methods length (HB); Tail length (T); Ear length (E); Tragus length Adult specimens of Pipistrellus ceylonicus and (Tr); Hindfoot length, including claw (HF); Forearm Tylonycteris fulvida from two localites in Assam were length (FA); Tibia length (Tb); 3MT-3rd Metacarpel collected (Fig. 1). The specimens were humanely length; 4MT-4th Metacarpel length; 5MT-5th Metacarpel euthanized with chloroform vapour and preserved in 70% length; Greatest length of skull including incisors (GTLi); alcohol and integrated in the collecton of ZSIS. Standard Condylobasal length (CBL); Condylocanine length (CCL); morphological measurements of the specimens and Maxillary toothrow length (CM3); Width across third craniodental measurements of the extracted skulls were molars (M3M3); Width across canines (C1C1); Zygomatc taken using a digital caliper accurate to the nearest 0.1mm breadth (ZB); Postorbital constricton (POC); Breadth and 0.01mm respectvely and were identfed following of braincase (BB); length of mandible including incisors Bates & Harrison (1997). For the checklist, informaton Figure 1. New distributon localites for Pipistrellus ceylonicus and Tylonycteris fulvida in Assam. Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 April 2018 | 10(5): 11606-11612 11607 New records of bats from Assam Boro et al. Table 1. External and cranial measurements of P. ceylonicus and T. (MLi); Mandibular toothrow length (CM3); Coronoid height (COH) pachypus specimens from Assam. Tylonycteris fulvida Measurements Pipistrellus ceylonicus ZSIS-407 male, ZSIS-408 (mm) ZSIS-382, male Results and Discussion female Two vespertlionid species, namely, Pipistrellus FA 33.4 27.2, 28.6 ceylonicus and Tylonycteris fulvida were recorded for the HB 47 - P. frst tme from Assam State in northeastern India. For T 35.1 25.3, 26 ceylonicus, this also consttutes the second record of the E 12 9.1, 9.3 species from northeastern India. An updated checklist of Tr 4.1 3.2, 4.2 bats of Assam State comprising 32 species in 17 families is also provided. HF 8.6 5, 5.2 Tb 11.7 12, 13 Pipistrellus ceylonicus 3rd MT 33.4 27.4, 27.7 During feld work around the periphery of 4th MT 33.5 27.3, 26.3 Burachapari Wildlife Sanctuary in Sonitpur District of 5th MT 32.2 25.6, 26.5 Central Assam, an adult male specimen of P. ceylonicus GTLi 13.82 11.92, 12.40 0 0 was caught at Sisuwat Village (26.54438 N & 92.76413 E, CBL 13.40 11.10, 12.14 50m) at the southern edge of the Sanctuary at 16.40hr CCL 13 11, 11.50 on 28 November 2016. The village is situated on the CM3 5.32 3.81, 4.00 sandy riverbank of Brahmaputra with scatered human M3M3 6.53 5.37, 5.45 setlements. The individual was captured while fying C1C1 4.73 4.08, 4.14 inside a school building by sweeping a buterfy net. Although we could not ascertain the roostng locaton ZB 9.95 8.77, 8.81 of the bat, secondary sources informed that a colony BB 7.18 6.58, 6.76 of bats roosts on the ceiling of an occasionally used POC 4.20 3.81, 3.90 community health centre building nearby.