Titania's woolly bat (''Kerivoula titania'') is a species of bat found in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

Taxonomy and etymology

It was initially described as a new species in 2007 based on specimens collected from

Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary ( Khmer: ដែនជម្រកសត្វព្រៃកែវសីមា) is a protected area of mixed seasonal tropical forest in eastern Cambodia, located in Mondulkiri and Kratié provinces. The area was f ...

in eastern Cambodia. It is similar in appearance to other ''

Kerivoula ''Kerivoula'' is a genus of vesper bats in the subfamily Kerivoulinae. They are found throughout tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, and New Guinea. Species within this genus are: * Tanzanian woolly bat (''Kerivoula africana'') * ...

'' species, but has a

genetic divergence Genetic divergence is the process in which two or more populations of an ancestral species accumulate independent genetic changes (mutations) through time, often leading to reproductive isolation and continued mutation even after the populations hav ...

of 12%, which was deemed great enough to warrant naming it as a new species. 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 ...

"''titania''" is a reference to the character Titania from

Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

''. The authors named the bat after the "Queen of the Fairies" to reflect "the

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

-like nature of this forest bat."

Description

It is considered a medium-sized member of its genus. Its forearm is long. It has large, mostly hairless ears that are long. It has tall and narrow

tragi The tragus is a small pointed eminence of the external ear, situated in front of the concha, and projecting backward over the meatus. It also is the name of hair growing at the entrance of the ear. Its name comes the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'g ...

that are long. Its tail is long. It weighs . Its skull has a distinctly flat appearance. 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 38 teeth. Its individual hairs are tricolored: their bases are black, their middles are pale gray, and their tips are dark gray.

Biology and ecology

It is

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

and roosts in sheltered places during the day Its flattened skull suggests that it roosts in constricted spaces such as under tree bark or in crevices. Not much is known about its reproduction, but a female in late-stage pregnancy was once documented in early May. Lactating females have been recorded in mid May and early June. It is one of the known

natural reservoir In infectious disease ecology and epidemiology, a natural reservoir, also known as a disease reservoir or a reservoir of infection, is the population of organisms or the specific environment in which an infectious pathogen naturally lives and rep ...

s of the

SARS coronavirus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1; or Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, SARS-CoV) is a strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the respiratory illness responsible for th ...

. In one study in Taiwan, 10% of individuals tested positive for the SARS coronavirus.

Range and habitat

This species was first described from eastern Cambodia, with additional specimens from

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

, and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. In 2012, it was first documented in

Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

of China and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. This discovery made it only the third bat of its genus to be documented in China.

Conservation

It is currently assessed 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 large range, no major threats to this species have been identified, and it is not likely to be declining quickly.

References

External links

An image of this species
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1818890 Mammals described in 2007 Bats of Southeast Asia Kerivoulinae