The New Caledonian wattled bat (''Chalinolobus neocaledonicus'') is a species of

vesper bat 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 ...

, family Vespertilionidae. It is found only in

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

Taxonomy

The New Caledonia wattled bat was first described by Swiss naturalist

Pierre Revilliod Pierre Revilliod (1883–1954) was a Swiss naturalist. From 1927–1953 Revilliod was a curator and researcher at the Natural History Museum of Geneva. He is best known for his work on fossil bats Bats are mammals of the order Chiro ...

in 1914. It was formerly considered a subspecies of

Gould's wattled bat Gould's wattled bat (''Chalinolobus gouldii'') is a species of Australian wattled bat named after the English naturalist John Gould.Chruszcz, Bryan & Barclay, M. R. (2002)''Mammalian Species'' Chalinolobus gouldii The American Society of Mammal ...

(''Chalinolobus gouldii''), but evidence for synonymy is weak. Its

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 ...

"''neocaledonicus''" comes from Ancient Greek '' néos'' meaning "new" and the

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

rendering of "Caledonia," ''caledonicus''; the species name refers to New Caledonia where this species is found.

Description

It is a small species of bat, with a head and body length of only . Its forearm is long, and its tail is long. Its ears are relatively long, at Its

dental formula Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiolo ...

is , for a total of 32 teeth.

Range and habitat

It is one of nine species of bat found in

. It is among the three species of bat

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the territory.

Conservation

It is considered

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

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 ...

. It meets the criteria for this assessment because its area of occupancy is less than , there are fewer than six known localities of occurrence, and its habitat is declining in quality and extent.

Sources

{{Taxonbar, from=Q305068 Chalinolobus Bats of Oceania Mammals of New Caledonia Endemic fauna of New Caledonia Mammals described in 1914 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot