Hilgendorf's tube-nosed bat (''Murina hilgendorfi'') is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. In

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

they are called 'tengu komori', after the mythical creature called the Tengu. It was formerly thought to be a subspecies of ''

Murina leucogaster The greater tube-nosed bat (''Murina leucogaster'') is a species of bat. An adult greater tube-nosed bat has a body length of 4.2-5.7 cm, a tail length of 3.6-4.1 cm, and a wing length of 3.7-4.4 cm. The species is found in India ...

'' (called ''Murina leucogaster hilgendorfi''), but is now known to be a distinct species.

Distribution

Hilgendorf's tube-nosed bat is found in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Russia ( Primorye and Sakhalin), Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Korea and

( Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

Description

Slender faced with tubular nostrils, it has oval ears with a prominent tragus, more than half of the ear in height. Fur is soft and curly dark grey with long, silvery guard hairs. It flies relatively low over the ground and hovers.

Habitat, diet, hunting

They live in forests, mines, caves and tunnels, and occasionally in buildings. Normally, they live alone or a few together, rather than in large colonies. They are insect eating, living on moths and beetles.

IUCN red list assessment

In 2008 the IUCN reported: '' "It is widespread, but naturally rare species. In Japan it is considered Vulnerable because of loss of old-growth forests, but at present it is not suspected that the species is declining throughout its range at a rate that would warrant listing in a threatened category. However, as logging activity increases, habitat loss may pose an increasingly great threat in the future. Monitoring is needed and the species should be reassessed if new data becomes available." ''

Related species

The greater tube-nosed bat (''Murina leucogaster'') is found in India, China. The smaller, brown coloured bat

Ussuri tube-nosed bat The Ussuri tube-nosed bat (''Murina ussuriensis'') is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It is threatened by habitat loss. It is the only species of bat that hibernates in snowbanks. Taxonomy and etymology It was described ...

is found in Korea, Russia (Far East and Sakhalin), and Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu,

Tsushima Tsushima may refer to: Places * Tsushima Island, part of Nagasaki Prefecture ** Tsushima, Nagasaki, a city in Nagasaki Prefecture (coterminous with Tsushima Island) ** Tsushima Province, a historical province, coterminous with modern Tsushima Su ...

and Yakushima).

References

;Notes ;Sources Ohdachi, Satoshi D. I; Ishibashi, Yasuyuki; Iwasa, Masahiro A.; Saitoh, Takashi (2009): ''The Wild Mammals of Japan'', Shoukadoh, Kyoto, {{Taxonbar, from=Q2165853 Murininae Mammals described in 1880 Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Bats of Asia