Miniopterus magnater Sanborn, 1931

Saikia, Uttam, Ngaomei, Gaikhuanlung & Meetei, A. B., 2020, Some noteworthy bat (Mammalia: Chiroptera) records from Manipur State, Northeastern India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 120 (1), pp. 41-48 : 44

Miniopterus magnater Sanborn, 1931

An adult female ( V /M/ERS/431) was collected from Phalong III village in Tamenglong District of Manipur on the late evening of 12th June, 2017 also by beating with a bamboo stick. Although the roosting site of the bat was not ascertained, a number of small caves in the nearby areas could serve as a roost for this cave dwelling bat. When blow dried, the preserved specimen appeared to have a dark pelage dorso-ventrally. Wings, interfemoral membranes were also dark. The second phalanx of the third metacarpal was characteristically very long at

42.7mm. Although externally very similar to congener M. fuliginosus , the mensural parameters of M. magnater exceed the former. Our Manipur specimen had a CCL and CM 3 of 16.05 and 6.87mm ( Table 3) respectively which exceeds that of M. fuliginosus ( CCL 14.1 and CM 3 6.1mm) in Indian Subcontinent (As M. schreibersii in Bates & Harrison, 1997). The other craniodental measurements of this specimen also correspond well to the relevant measurements of specimens from Meghalaya ( Table 2 & 3).