Neoromicia nana (Peters, 1852)

Mongombe, Aaron Manga, Fils, Eric Moise Bakwo & Tamesse, Joseph Lebel, 2020, Annotated checklist of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of Mount Cameroon, southwestern Cameroon, Zoosystema 42 (24), pp. 483-514 : 507

Neoromicia nana (Peters, 1852)

( Table 3 )

Vespertilio nanus Peters, 1852: 156.

COMMON NAMES. — English: Banana Pipistrelle Bat. French: Pipistrelle naine.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — 9 specimens (including original data).

Mount Cameroon area • 2 ♂♂; Above Buea ; 4°09’34”N, 9°14’12”E; 1850 m; 12.XI.1954 -6.I.958; Martin Eisentraut leg.; SMNS 5208, 6571 • 1 ♀, 1 specimen; Buea ; 4°09’00”N, 9°12’00”E; 1050 m; 26.X.1957; Martin Eisentraut leg.; SMNS 6570, ZFMK 1963.0189 • 1 ♀; Victoria ; 4°00’46”N, 9°13’13”E; 136 m; Preuss P leg.; ZMB TO94444 .

Other localities of Cameroon • 2 ♂♂; Mount Manengouba ; 5°00’00”N, 9°50’00”E; 1000 m; Martin Eisentraut leg.; ZFMK 1961.0672, 0673 • 1 ♂; Dikume-Balue ; 4°14’42”N, 9°29’36”E; 1100 m; Martin Eisentraut leg.; ZFMK 1969.0490 .

ORIGINAL DATA. — A single male ( Table 1 ) individual of the banana pipistrelle was captured in the understory of the montane forest at an altitude of 1800 m a.s.l. Previously this species was documented as Pipistrellus nanus at altitudes from 1000 m up to 1600 m a.s.l. on Mount Cameroon ( Eisentraut 1963; Fedden & MacLeod 1986).

HABITATS AND DISTRIBUTION. — Neoromicia nana is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, occurring from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia and Somalia in the east and south to southern Africa ( Monadjem et al. 2010). This species primarily inhabits lowland and montane tropical rainforest, as well as savannah habitats where it roosts singly or as small colonies in young, terminal and furled banana and plantain leaves ( Happold 2013m; Monadjem et al. 2010). They have also been recorded to roost between “hands” of bunches of banana fruit, thatch huts, oil palms, roofs of houses and road culverts ( Happold 1987).