Hypsugo crassulus bellieri (De Vree, 1972)

Monadjem, Ara, Richards, Leigh & Denys, Christiane, 2016, An African bat hotspot: the exceptional importance of Mount Nimba for bat diversity, Acta Chiropterologica 18 (2), pp. 359-375 : 369

Hypsugo crassulus bellieri (De Vree, 1972)

During this survey, just three specimens of this species were collected in forested habitats on the Liberian side, from 400 m to 1,200 m a.s.l. This species had not been previously recorded from Mt Nimba. The taxon bellieri is restricted to the Upper Guinea forest zone and is separated by over 2,000 km from the nearest populations of the taxon crassulus from southern Cameroon; the two taxa also differ in morphology suggesting that they are specifically distinct ( Fahr, 2013 f). The conservation status of the taxon bellieri has not been assessed, but due to continued habitat fragmentation and destruction it may be threatened ( Fahr, 2013 c). The results of this study support this, as this species was only recorded in old growth forest. In a recent molecular study, Decher et al. (2015) showed that this species groups with other members of the genus Hypsugo , corroborating the results of a karyological study (Volleth et al., 2001). We have therefore assigned this species to Hypsugo .