Lander's horseshoe bat (''Rhinolophus landeri'') is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). 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 birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the family Rhinolophidae found in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Its natural habitats are

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

and caves.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 1837 by English naturalist

William Charles Linnaeus Martin William Charles Linnaeus Martin (1798–1864) was an England, English natural history, naturalist. Biography William Charles Linnaeus Martin was the son of William Martin (naturalist), William Martin (naturalist) and his wife, Mary. William ...

. The

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

for the

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

"''landeri''" was explorer

Richard Lander Richard Lemon Lander (8 February 1804 – 6 February 1834) was a British explorer of western Africa. He and his brother John were the first Europeans to follow the course of the River Niger, and discover that it led to the Atlantic. Biogr ...

. Martin named the species after Lander because the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

had been collected during Lander's expedition to Fernando Pó. It was Martin's intention to posthumously honor Lander, calling him "enterprising, but unfortunate" after his untimely death at age 29.

Description

It is a medium-sized member of its family. Individuals weigh . Total length is approximately ; tail length is and forearm length is .

Range and habitat

It has been widely documented throughout

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. Individuals have been found at relatively high elevations—up to above sea level on Kenya's

Mount Elgon Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda.

Conservation

It is currently evaluated as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

—its lowest conservation priority. It meets the criteria for this assessment because it has a wide geographic range; its population size is likely large; and it is unlikely that it is in rapid decline.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1764415 Rhinolophidae Mammals described in 1838 Taxa named by William Charles Linnaeus Martin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Bats of Africa