Schneider's leaf-nosed bat or Schneider's roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros speoris'') 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 endemic to South Asia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, caves, and urban areas.
Taxonomy
It was named after
Johann Gottlob Schneider
Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider (18 January 1750 – 12 January 1822) was a German Empire, German classicist and natural history, naturalist.
Biography
Schneider was born at Collm in Saxony. In 1774, on the recommendation of Christian Gottlob ...
, a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
and
naturalist who first observed it in 1800.
Description
This species is a small bat. The bat has three additional leaflets on its leaf-nose, with the outer one being smaller than the other two, and the well-developed lappets next to the nostrils are the external characteristics differentiating this species from other species in the genus ''Hipposideros''. A frontal sac is also present above the leaf-nose. ''H. speoris'' varies in color from gray to orange-brown, with it being the palest between the shoulders and on the ventral side, and darker on the flanks and the posterior side. It possesses a tiny baculum, which is just 0.57 mm in length, with a blunt tip and slightly expanded base.
Biology
Reproduction
The bat has a gestation period of 135-140 days, after which a single young is born.
The eyes of newborns are closed and the ears are folded laterally. Their body is hairless and has a dark dorsal and a pink ventral side. The eye slits appear after one week , and the eyes are completely opened after two weeks. They raise their ears on the tenth day and ear movements are noticeable two weeks after birth. When the bats are about one month old their fur is as dense as it is in adults but is of a darker color. Juvenile bats attach themselves to the body of their mothers in a reversed position while sucking at one of two pubic teats. Most females carry their newborns with them when they fly out of the cave for foraging and the majority leave their infants inside the cave once they are older than 7 days. Mothers return regularly before midnight and retrieve their young ones. During retrieval the mothers move towards their infants, gently touch it with the forearm, and present the ventral surface, especially the pubic region. When the infant tries to cling on the body of its mother she turns her body about an angle of 45~ by partly spreading her wing membranes. This posture enables the baby to hold the pubic teats of the mother and to release contact from the rock. Then the infant turns towards the mammary glands and after suckling it stretches either one or both of its wings repeatedly. Apparently mothers spend most of the night inside the cave.
Diet
The bat tends to fly slowly close to the ground and hunt for insects. It forages only while in flight and uses all available closed and edge habitat. Prey capture occurs mainly in edge vegetation bordering open space.
The diet of this species consists mainly of
coleopterans
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describe ...
,
dipterans
Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced m ...
, mosquitoes and other insects.
Echolocation
The echolocation signals of ''H. speoris'' lack an initial upward frequency-modulated sweep and are of moderate duration (5.1–8.7 ms). Sequences had high duty cycles (23–41%) and very high pulse repetition rates (22.8–60.6 Hz).
Hipposiderid bats echolocate with combined CF/ FM-sounds at 127-138 kHz.
Distribution and habitat
The bat is found in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
(
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
,
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
,
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
,
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
,
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
,
Orissa
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sch ...
,
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
,
Telangana
Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...
, and
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
),
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, and more recently has also been recorded in
Pyay
Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Aye ...
, Myanmar. It has been recorded up to an elevation of above sea level.
It is commonly found and widespread across its entire range, and roosts in groups of up to 1,000 individuals.
The bats tend to roost in caves, caverns, underground cellars, old forts, palaces, under bridges, old disused buildings, temples, tunnels in dry plains or forested hillsides. While the bats in India are more scattered in the roosts, the bats in Sri Lanka roost together closely.
Conservation
The species is listed by the IUCN as least concern as it has a wide range, can tolerate many habitats, has a large population, and is not thought to be declining rapidly. The species is locally threatened in parts of India because of hunting for local consumption and medicinal purposes, persecution by fumigation, roost disturbance due to tourism related activities, stone quarrying, and developmental activities such as tearing down old disused buildings leading to loss of roosting sites. In Karnataka and Kerala, the species is threatened by the collection of the bats for food and medicine, while in Maharashtra, the species is threatened by disturbance caused by tourism and other human activities. No threats have been identified for the Sri Lankan populations of this bat.
There are no conservation measures in place to protect the species, although the bat has been recorded from some protected areas across its range.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q308449
Hipposideros
Bats of South Asia
Bats of India
Mammals of Sri Lanka
Mammals described in 1800
Taxa named by Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot