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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Taxonomic and ecological notes on some poorly known bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Meghalaya, India Uttam Saikia, Adora Thabah & Manuel Ruedi 26 February 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 3 | Pages: 15311–15325 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5264.12.3.15311-15325 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2020 | 12(3): 15311–15325 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5264.12.3.15311-15325 #5264 | Received 23 July 2019 | Final received 18 November 2019 | Finally accepted 11 February 2020 C o m Taxonomic and ecological notes on some poorly known bats m u n (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Meghalaya, India i c 1 2 3 a Uttam Saikia , Adora Thabah & Manuel Ruedi t i 1 Zoological Survey of India, North Eastern Regional Centre, Risa Colony, Shillong, Meghalaya 793003, India. o 2 Solar View Cotage, Upper Mawprem, Shillong, Meghalaya 793002, India. n 3 Department of Mammalogy and Ornithology, Natural History Museum of Geneva, BP 6434, 1211 Geneva 6, Switzerland. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected] Abstract: The chiropteran diversity of Meghalaya State is very high with 65 reported species. Taxonomic and ecological informaton on many of these bat species, however, are scant or largely outdated. We reinforce the records on fve poorly known bat species in Meghalaya, viz., Megaerops niphanae, Myots pilosus, Kerivoula kachinensis, M iniopterus magnater, & M iniopterus pusillus, critcally evaluate their taxonomic assignment, and provide detailed morphometric data for further comparisons. For three of these species, we also provide echolocaton call data that are reported for the frst tme in India. Together, these new data highlight the need for a more robust and critcal examinaton of the rich bat fauna existng in the foothills of the Himalaya. Keywords: Biometrics, Chiroptera, echolocaton call. Abbreviatons: ZSIS—Collectons of the Zoological Surveys of India, Shillong | Fhi—highest frequency (in kHz) | Flo—lowest frequency (in kHz) | FmaxE—frequency of maximum energy (in kHz). Editor: Paul Racey, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, UK. Date of publicaton: 26 February 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Saikia, U., A. Thabah & M. Ruedi (2020). Taxonomic and ecological notes on some poorly known bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Meghalaya, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(3): 15311–15325. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5264.12.3.15311-15325 Copyright: © Saikia et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: The work of US is insttutonally supported by Zoological Survey of India. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Ethics statement: All animals were handled according to the recommendaton of the American Society for Mammalogy. Since bats are not legally protected in India (except for two species which are outside the purview of the present study) and our sampling sites were located outside protected areas, no approval from the state forest department was necessary for specimen collecton. We, however, sought verbal approval from the local authorites to conduct this research and collecton of vouchers Author details: Uttam Saikia is working as Scientst-C in Zoological Survey of India, Shillong and is interested in the systematcs of the bat fauna of India with special reference to northeastern India. Adora Thabah studied the diversity and ecology of bats in Meghalaya for her PhD thesis. She has worked as a freelance ecologist and now contnues to survey these mammals and tries to develop acton plan to protect them. Manuel Ruedi is interested in the systematcs positon and biogeographic origin of bats from the Old World. He uses a combinaton of morphological and molecular approaches to reconstruct their evoluton. Author contributon: US, MR and AT conducted the feld surveys, recorded the calls and identfed the specimens. MR analyzed the ultrasounds. US and MR wrote the manuscript. Acknowledgements: US is thankful to Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for providing insttutonal facilites and constant support for small mammalian research. US and MR are also deeply thankful to Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for facilitatng insttutonal collaboraton between ZSI and MHNG, Geneva. Facilites and assistances rendered by the ofcers-in-charge and staf members of ZSI, Shillong and Solan is also appreciated. Survey permission and logistc supports provided by Meghalaya Forest Department is also thankfully acknowledged. MR and AT express their grattude to the organizers and partcipants of the “Caving in the Abode of the Clouds Project”, especially the Meghalaya Adventures Associaton for logistc support and friendship. 15311 J TT Taxonomic and ecological notes on bats Saikia et al. INTRODUCTION for Megaerops niphanae, Myots pilosus, Kerivoula kachinensis, Miniopterus magnater, and M. pusillus A variety of factors like geological age, past and from Meghalaya and also provide for three of them, a present climatc conditons or unique biogeographic descripton of their echolocaton calls that will aid their history have shaped the present faunal compositon further monitoring in the wild. of northeastern India (Pawar et al. 2007). The Meghalaya subtropical forest ecoregion covering the state of Meghalaya and the adjacent areas of Assam is MATERIALS AND METHODS recognized as one of the most species-diverse area in the Indomalayan region (Wikramanayake et al. 2002) Study area with more than 165 species of mammals (Rodgers & The northeast Indian state of Meghalaya lies within Panwar 1988; Das et al. 1995; Saikia et al. 2018); and 25.021–26.130 0N lattude and 89.830–92.8020E a total of 162 species of mammals in Meghalaya State longitude and has an area of 22,429km2 (Anonymous (Lyngdoh et al. 2019). Meghalaya harbours numerous 2005). Geologically, Meghalaya mostly consists of caves of which nearly a thousand have been scientfcally a stable structural block called the Shillong Plateau, explored and mapped during the “Caving in the Abode with a maximum height of 1,950m. A sedimentary of the Clouds” project (Prokop & Arbenz 2015). Caves sequence called the Jainta group lies to the south of serve as a major roostng place for many bat species this plateau and is a mixture of limestone, sandstone since they ofer a relatvely stable microclimate, protect and coal deposits (Tringham 2012). The state receives them from unfavourable environmental conditons and a high annual rainfall with an average of 2,689mm in reduce predatory pressure (Kunz 1982). Availability of the eastern parts and 7,196mm in central and western suitable roosts is a critcal factor that largely determines Meghalaya (Haridarshan & Rao 1985). Due to high diversity and distributon of bats (Kunz 1982; Arita rainfall, the rainwater absorbed into the ground reacts 1993). Thus, the state with abundant caves especially in with the limestone and dissolves it, ultmately creatng the limestone belt ofers plentful roostng opportunites an extensive network of underground drainage systems, for cave roostng bats. Indeed, 65 species of bats including caves. Such caves are developed intermitently have been recorded so far from the state, including along the whole limestone belt of the state and also in several recent discoveries resultng from exploratons sandstone and quartzite areas of southern Meghalaya conducted during the above-mentoned caving project (Tringham 2012). The state has a recorded forest cover (Ruedi et al. 2012a,b; Saikia et al. 2017, 2018; Thong et of 76.4% of the total geographic area of which 43.8% al. 2018). Some older records from the state pertain to consists of very dense and moderately dense forest exceptonally rare species, such as Eptesicus tatei or E. (Forest Survey of India 2017). The vegetaton in the pachyots which have hardly been reported again in India