The eastern broad-nosed bat or Orion broad-nosed bat (''Scotorepens orion'') is a species of

vespertilionid Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat familie ...

bat. It is found only in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, east of the Great Dividing Range, from about Rockhampton to Melbourne, with a small isolated population on the Atherton Tablelands.

Description

It is a medium-sized bat, with forearm . Its fur-colour is a rich dark brown on the back, with a more drab belly, not markedly bicoloured. It can be separated from '' S. balstoni'' by its penis morphology, which has eight spines on the head of the glans in an almost circular cluster. It roosts in tree hollows but has been reported to roost in buildings. It is known to share roosts with other similar-sized bats such as the Chocolate Wattled bat. A single young is born in November or December.(Churchill)

Distribution

One place it has appeared is in Wilson Reserve Ivanhoe Melbourne, 10 km northeast of the Central Business District on the north bank of the Yarra river, where 20 timber roost boxes have been set up by the Friends of Wilson Reserve. Gould's Wattled bats began using the boxes in February 2005 and the first Eastern Broadnosed bat appeared in January 2007. Since then 45 records of this species have been made, including 25 since wrist-banding of bats commenced in September 2011. 18 bats have been banded, 9 male, 9 female, usually solitary, or in pairs. In December 2014, two new females were found in one box, both lactating with attached young, one recently born and still bald, the other older, fully furred and nearly the same size as its mother.

Taxonomy

The species was described by

Ellis Troughton Ellis Le Geyt Troughton (born in Sydney on 29 April 1893; died 30 November 1974) was an Australian zoologist and mammalogist. Biography Ellis Troughton began to exercise his interest in mammals at fourteen years of age, taking a role at the Au ...

in 1937, assigning it first as ''Scoteinus orion'' then as the type of the genus ''

Scotorepens ''Scotorepens'' is a genus of bats within the Vespertilionidae family. Species within this genus are widely distributed across Australia and to the north at Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Taxonomy The genus was erected by Ellis Troughton in h ...

'' he established in 1943. Troughton's description was of a bat that occurred within New South Wales, and in urban buildings, but was not recognised or previously studied during the preceding century. It was the first of four species he identified in a revision of museum specimens and new collections of material, and the second 'broad-nosed bat' to be discovered in the New South Wales region, distinguishing the species from previously described population later recognised as '' Scoteanax rueppellii'' (Rüppell's broad-nosed bat). The first description used a series of specimens, the first of which was noticed by taxidermists employed to rid a church of its bat colony. The workers from the Australian Museum, H. S. Grant and J. H. Wright, succeeded in obtaining a second specimen at the All Saints Church in

Hunters Hill Hunters Hill is a suburb of the lower north shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Hunters Hill is located north-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area ...

, New South Wales. Eleven other specimens from the same site, and another that had dropped from a tree in

Taronga Park Taronga Zoo is a zoo located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the suburb of Mosman, on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The opening hours are between 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Taronga is an Aboriginal word meaning 'beautiful water view'. It ...

, were also forwarded to the author.

References

* Friends of Wilson Reserve, Bat box results December 2014, portphillipwesternport.landcarevic.net.au/fo-wilson-reserve/projects/bat-survey * Churchill, Sue, Australian Bats 2nd ed. Allen & Unwin 2008, page 158-9 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1830151 Bats of Australia Scotorepens Taxa named by Ellis Le Geyt Troughton Mammals described in 1937 Mammals of New South Wales Mammals of Queensland Mammals of Victoria (state)