Lander's horseshoe bat (''Rhinolophus landeri'') 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 Rhinolophidae found in

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

. Its natural habitats are

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

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 English naturalist. Biography William Charles Linnaeus Martin was the son of William Martin (naturalist) and his wife, Mary. William Martin had published early colour books on the fossil ...

. The

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

for the

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

"''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. Biograp ...

. Martin named the species after Lander because 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 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, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

. 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 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. It meets the criteria for this assessment because it has a wide geographic range; its population size is likely large; and it 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