Emballonura alecto

Suyanto, Agustinus & Struebig, Matthew J., 2007, Bats of the Sangkulirang limestone karst formations, East Kalimantan - a priority region for Bornean bat conservation, Acta Chiropterologica 9 (1), pp. 67-95 : 77

Emballonura alecto

(Eydoux and Gervais, 1836)

Greater sheath-tailed bat

New material

2♂♂ ( MZB M26765 / 26757 ), 1♀ ( MZB M26830 ).

Records from Borneo

Brunei: Rampayoh Wong Kadir (Ko- fron, 2002). Sabah: Balu Ponggul, Bekuku, Danum Valley, Gunung Kinabalu, Kinaba- tangan, Maliau Basin, Pun Batu, Sepilok (Yasuma and Andau, 2000). Sarawak: Mulu NP ( Payne et al., 2000). WestKal: Gunung Niut NR ( Colijn, 2005). CentKal: Barito Ulu Research Area (McConkey and Chiv- ers, 2004). EastKal: Gua Semoi 4 Samboja (MZB); Bukit Soeharto ( Yasuma, 1994); Gunung Limut (A. Suyanto, unpublished data).

Comments

Emballonura individuals were captured in harp-traps set across trails at Tabalar and Baai and caves at Tabalar, Baai and Tin- tang, and three specimens are reported here ( Tables 3 and 4 ). Two male specimens from Tabalar were originally considered as E. monticola based on forearm size (43.7–45.9 mm) and tail length (12 mm), but condylo-canine length (13.47–13.52 mm) suggests that they may actually be E. alecto based on specimens described in Payne et al. (2000). However, the diastema between upper anterior and posterior pre- molars, a distinguishing feature of E. alecto , is not present in any of these Sangkulirang specimens. E. monticola and E. alecto occur sympatrically in Borneo and there has been much confusion as to their identity in the past (Corbet and Hill, 1992). Our observa- tions suggest that there may be some varia- tion in the discriminating characters used in the literature. Indeed, Hulva and Horáček (2006) recently reported a distinct haplo- type of E. alecto collected in Northeast

Kalimantan that also exhibited a narrow diastema between lower premolars. We did not find any specimens of E. monticola from Kalimantan in the MZB collection — two specimens collected from West Kali- mantan and labelled as E. monticola (MZB M12334 and M12332) are in fact E. alecto using the skull length and diastema criteria. A taxonomic and perhaps genetic review of these species throughout their ranges will prove most useful.