Triaenops Dobson, 1871

Goodman, Steven M. & Ranivo, Julie, 2008, A new species of Triaenops (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Hipposideridae) from Aldabra Atoll, Picard Island (Seychelles), Zoosystema 30 (3), pp. 681-693 : 684-685

Genus Triaenops Dobson, 1871

REMARKS

As explained in the diagnosis below, within the Malagasy and African/Middle East species of the genus Triaenops there are two distinct types of noseleafs that clearly distinguish two different groups in this genus ( Hill 1982). In this respect the material from the western Seychelles is referable to the T. auritus / furculus group, rather than to the T. rufus / persicus group. Thus, in making our detailed evaluations we have used specimens of T. furculus and T. auritus from near their type localities, which are, respectively, extreme southwestern Madagascar in the general vicinity of Sarodrano and the Ankarana region near Antsiranana (see Ranivo & Goodman 2006; Fig. 1 ).

On the basis of our comparisons of the western Seychelles material of Triaenops to specimens of this genus from Madagascar, as well as Africa and the Middle East, animals from the former locality possess unique morphological characters and certain measurements fall outside of the range of any previously named species of Triaenops . Given these differences, we consider the western Seychelles material to be new to science.

Figures

FIG. 1. — Map of the islands of the western Seychelles Archipelago (Aldabra, Cosmoledo, and Assumption), Madagascar, and the east African coast showing the distribution of the different Triaenops species occurring across the western Indian Ocean.○, T. auritus G. Grandidier, 1912; △, T. furculus Trouessart, 1906; + +, T. rufus A. Milne-Edwards, 1881; □, T. pauliani n. sp. Note that Aldabra is to the northwest of the northern tip of Madagascar and these two zones form an almost equidistant triangle with the Comoro Islands.