The Wallace's or Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat (''Styloctenium wallacei'') is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. It is endemic to

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

and the nearby Togian Islands of Indonesia. Cave paintings resembling these bats have been found in Australia, where bats of this kind are not otherwise known.

Taxonomy

The Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat was first described in 1866 by the British zoologist John Edward Gray, Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum. He gave it the name ''Pteropus wallacei'', naming it in honour of the British naturalist

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...

who had collected the first specimen in

in Indonesia. Although Wallace was sure that the specimen he had found was a new species, his announcement was met with scepticism, and others thought the bat was a juvenile

masked flying fox The masked flying fox, Moluccan masked flying fox or masked fruit bat (''Pteropus personatus''), is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is endemic to Indonesia. It is part of a species complex of closely related species. The s ...

(''Pteropus personatus''). In 1899, the bat was moved to the new genus ''

Styloctenium ''Styloctenium'' (known as stripe-faced fruit bat or stripe-faced flying fox) is a genus of stripe-faced fruit bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapte ...

'' by the German zoologist Paul Matschie. This genus was believed to be monotypic, but in 2007, a single bat found on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines was described by Jacob Esselstyn and added to the genus as ''Styloctenium mindorensis'', the Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat.

Description

The Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat is a typical fruit bat with long, naked ears, forearms modified for flight and short hind legs with claws. There are white facial markings, each with a dark brown margin; a streak on the rostrum, a spot on the cheek, another at the angle of the jaw, a patch over the eye, a band across the upper lip and a patch on the chin. The only other known species of the genus ''Styloctenium'', ''S. mindorensis'', is differentiated by its multicusped lower and upper canine teeth.

Distribution and habitat

The Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat is native to the island of

in the Greater Sunda Islands and the Togian Islands in the

Gulf of Tomini The Gulf of Tomini ( id, Teluk Tomini), also known as the Bay of Tomini, is the equatorial gulf which separates the Minahassa Peninsula, Minahassa (Northern) and East Peninsula, Sulawesi, East Peninsulas of the island of Sulawesi (Celebes) in In ...

. It inhabits primary forest at altitudes of up to about but sometimes occurs in secondary forest where the understorey has been cleared to make way for cultivation of coffee or

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

. When it is occasionally seen in more open areas, it is probably moving between fragmented patches of forest.

Cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

s of megabats, found near

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

in Australia, are unlike any bats living on that continent today; they more resemble the Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat than any other species. A fossilised wasp nest overlaying cave paintings of a similar type has been tested as being 17,500 years old, making the

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

older and maybe dating to the last ice age, some twenty to twenty-five thousand years ago.Ancient Australian Rock Art Depicts Unknown Bats – News Watch
Newswatch.nationalgeographic.com (2008-12-09). Retrieved on 2015-11-13.

Status

The Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat is common in some areas of the island but rare in others. Much of the primary forest on Sulawesi has been cleared for agriculture, and the population of the bat is thought to be declining, and it may be hunted in some areas. For these reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being " near threatened". It is present in the

Lore Lindu National Park Lore Lindu National Park is a protected area of forest on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, in the province of Central Sulawesi. The Indonesian national park is 2,180 km2 covering both lowland and montane forests (200 to 2,610 meters abov ...

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The 2010 census recorded a population of 2,635,009 for ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q576724 Styloctenium Mammals described in 1866 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Mammals of Sulawesi Endemic fauna of Indonesia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot