Arielulus societatis (Hill, 1972)

Voon-Ching Lim, Rosli Ramli, Subha Bhassu & John-James Wilson, 2017, A checklist of the bats of Peninsular Malaysia and progress towards a DNA barcode reference library, PLoS ONE 12 (7), pp. 1-65 : 46

Arielulus societatis [Hill, 1972]

Pipistrellus societatis Hill, 1972: 34 ; Base Camp , Gunong Benom, Pahang, MALAYSIA, 3˚ 51’N, 102˚11’E, 800ft (Boo-Liat Lim and Hoi-Sen Yong, collector; BM(NH) 1967.1605) [ 140].

Arielulus societatis [ 98].

Common English name: Benom Gilded Pipistrelle

Barcode Index Number: There are no DNA barcodes recorded under this name on BOLD.

Remarks: The species closely resembles Arielulus circumdatus Temminck, 1840 but has smaller forearms, post-palatal extension, toothrows and rostrum [ 140]. Heller and Volleth [ 53] considered A. societatis and A. circumdatus to be conspecific with the former being the lowland subspecies of the latter but this was refuted by Hill and Francis [ 173] on the basis of morphological characteristics (see remarks on the genus Arielulus ). Both are recognised as distinct species by Simmons [ 98].

IUCN status: Vulnerable

Recorded at: Selangor: Ulu Gombak [ 53]; Pahang: Fraser Hill Forest Reserve [ 56], Gunong Benom [ 140].

A. societatis has been recorded in primary lowland and hill forests, and secondary forests, and found roosting in a hole of a tree trunk beside a forest stream [ 11, 14].