The Fly River roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros muscinus'') 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

Hipposideridae The Hipposideridae are a family of bats commonly known as the Old World leaf-nosed bats. While it has often been seen as a subfamily, Hipposiderinae, of the family Rhinolophidae, it is now more generally classified as its own family.Simmons, 20 ...

. It is found in West Papua,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Taxonomy

The Fly River roundleaf bat was described as a new species in 1886 by British mammalogist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appoin ...

and Italian naturalist

Giacomo Doria Marquis Giacomo Doria (1 November 1840 – 19 September 1913) was an Italian naturalist, botanist, herpetologist, and politician. He was the founder of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Genoa in 1867, and director from then until his d ...

. They initially placed it in the now-defunct genus ''Phyllorhina'', with a scientific name of ''Phyllorhina muscina''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

had been collected by

Luigi D'Albertis Luigi Maria D'Albertis (21 November 1841 – 2 September 1901) was an Italian naturalist and explorer who, in 1875, became the first Italian to chart the Fly River in what is now called Papua New Guinea. He undertook three voyages up this river f ...

along the

Fly River The Fly River is the third longest river in the island of New Guinea, after the Sepik River and Mamberamo River, with a total length of and the largest by volume of discharge in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its catc ...

. In 1941,

George Henry Hamilton Tate George Henry Hamilton Tate (April 30, 1894 – December 24, 1953) was a British-born American zoologist and botanist, who worked as a mammalogist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In his lifetime he wrote several book ...

divided the genus ''Hipposideros'' into species groups of morphologically similar species. He named one group the ''Hipposideros muscinus'' group: in it, he placed the Fly River roundleaf bat,

Semon's leaf-nosed bat Semon's leaf-nosed bat or Semon's roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros semoni'') is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae.Van Dyke, S. and Strahan, R. (eds.) (2008) ''The Mammals of Australia'', Third Edition, New Holland / Queensland Museum, Bri ...

(''H. semoni''), Wollaston's roundleaf bat (''H. wollastoni''), and the northern leaf-nosed bat (''H. stenotis''). In 1963, however,

John Edwards Hill John Edwards Hill (11 June 1928 – 6 May 1997) was a British mammalogist who described 24 species and 26 subspecies during his career. Early life and education Hill was born on 11 June 1928 in the small hamlet of Colemans Hatch in East Sussex, ...

included the Fly River roundleaf bat as part of the ''

Hipposideros cyclops The cyclops roundleaf bat or cyclops leaf-nosed bat (''Doryrhina cyclops'') is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae found in the forests of equatorial Africa. Description Cyclops roundleaf bats are relatively small, with adults ranging ...

'' species group along with all previous members of the ''H. muscinus'' group, as well as ''H. cyclops'' and '' H. camerunensis''.

Description

Based on two individuals, Thomas and Doria noted that the Fly River roundleaf bat has a head and body length of ; a tail length of ; and a forearm length of .

Range and habitat

The Fly River roundleaf bat is found only on the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, where its range includes both

and

. It has been documented at a range of elevations from above sea level. It is found in forested habitat.

Conservation

As of 2017, the Fly River roundleaf bat is evaluated as a

least-concern species 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 ...

—its lowest conservation priority.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1760894 Hipposideros Bats of Oceania Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Mammals described in 1886 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Bats of Southeast Asia Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxa named by Giacomo Doria Bats of New Guinea