''Mops jobimena'', commonly known as the black and red free-tailed bat,
is a species of
bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...
in the family
Molossidae. It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to western
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
.
With a forearm length of 45 to 48 mm (1.8 to 1.9 in),
Habitat
The known habitats of the species are
tropical dry deciduous forest and
spiny forest at altitudes from 50 to 870 m. It roosts in trees as well as in houses and other buildings, but has not been found to commonly roost in caves.
Taxonomy
Although currently listed as a member of the genus ''
Mops
MOPS (3-(''N''-morpholino)propanesulfonic acid) is a buffer introduced in the 1960s, one of the twenty Good's buffers. It is a structural analog to MES, and like MES, its structure contains a morpholine ring. HEPES is a similar pH buffering co ...
'', whose members it resembles morphologically, ''M. jobimenas closest relatives based on molecular evidence are ''
Tadarida aegyptiaca
The Egyptian free-tailed bat, also known as Egyptian guano bat or Egyptian nyctinome, (''Tadarida aegyptiaca'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae.
Description
The Egyptian free-tailed bat has fine, dense fur which is greyish brown, sh ...
'' of Africa and southwest Asia, and ''
Tadarida brasiliensis
The Mexican free-tailed bat or Brazilian free-tailed bat (''Tadarida brasiliensis'') is a medium-sized bat native to the Americas, so named because its tail can be almost half its total length and is not attached to its uropatagium. It has been ...
'' of the Americas, which form a clade believed to be about 9.8 million years old. ''M. jobimena'' and ''T. aegyptiaca'' were found to be
sister species
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and t ...
.
The morphological resemblance thus apparently represents
parallel
Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
Computing
* Parallel algorithm
* Parallel computing
* Parallel metaheuristic
* Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel
* Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of IBM ...
or
convergent evolution.
Conservation status
Although the species is not common, it has an extensive range that includes the vicinity of four protected areas, and is not believed to be dependent on undisturbed forest habitat. For these reasons, it has been categorized as being of '
least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...
' by the
IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
. Subsistence hunting may be a threat in southern Madagascar.
See also
*
List of bats of Madagascar
Bats are one of the major components of the indigenous mammalian fauna of Madagascar, in addition to tenrecs, lemurs, euplerid carnivores, and nesomyine rodents. Forty-six bat species have so far been recorded on Madagascar, of which thirty-six o ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2280051
J
Bats of Africa
Endemic fauna of Madagascar
Mammals of Madagascar
Mammals described in 2004