Jones's roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros jonesi'') is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). 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 birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the family

Hipposideridae The Hipposideridae are a family (biology), 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 fa ...

. It is endemic to southern

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest,

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, rocky areas, and caves and other subterranean habitats.

Taxonomy

The holotype was collected by T. S. Jones of the Sierra Leone Department of Agriculture in Makeni in 1947. Upon further examination of the holotype at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

by Hayman, it was recognized as a distinct species. The bat was subsequently named after T. S. Jones. It belongs to the ''bicolor'' species group.

Description

It is a small

microbat Microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera (bats). Bats have long been differentiated into Megachiroptera (megabats) and Microchiroptera, based on their size, the use of echolocation by the Microchiroptera an ...

with a noseleaf and large ears. Both sexes are similar in appearance. It is grayish-brown with an orange phase. The hairs are fine, dense, and silky, and the mid-dorsal hairs are 10-11 mm in length. The

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

pelage A fur is a soft, thick growth of hair that covers the skin of almost all mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an ...

is grayish-brown to a dirty brown. The dorsal hairs are dark gray and gray at the tip. The

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

pelage is lighter, and the ventral hairs are pale gray or brown with a whitish tip. The dorsal pelage on the orange phase is tawny-orange to cinnamon. The wings and the

interfemoral membrane The patagium (: patagia) is a membranous body part that assists an animal in obtaining lift when gliding or flying. The structure is found in extant and extinct groups of flying and gliding animals including bats, theropod dinosaurs (including ...

are a dark gray in color. It has a noseleaf with enlarged internarial septum, which partly conceals the nostrils. The noseleaf also has one lateral leaflet on each side, with the frontal sac being absent. The noseleaf is longer than it is broad. The posterior component is elongated, and divided into 4 cells by two prominent lateral septa and one weak middle septum. The upper margin of the noseleaf is strongly curved and is sub-triangular in outline. The anterior component is hairy and broad, covering the muzzle. The internarial septum is pad-like and greatly enlarged, forming a transversely oval disc which partly conceals the nostrils. The bat also lacks an anal sac. The bat has very large and separated ears. The ears are around 45-60 % of the forearm length, which is relatively long. The ears are broad, sub-triangular, and pointed in shape with only a faint concavity in outer margin below tip. Each ear has 11 internal folds, with the

antitragus The antitragus is a feature of mammalian ear anatomy. In humans, it is a small Tubercle (anatomy)#Ears, tubercle on the visible part of the ear, the Auricle (anatomy), auricle. The antitragus is located just above the earlobe and points anatomical ...

possessing a distinct fold.

Biology

The bat is insectivorous.

Habitat and distribution

The species has been recorded in

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, and

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. The species roosts in small groups of several dozen individuals. It is known to roost in caves, boulder caves, true caves, and mine shafts. The bat's range extends through a wide variety of habitats, such as tropical moist forest, arid Sahel vegetation, and from lowland areas into

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

regions. It has been recorded up to an elevation of 1350 m.

Conservation

The species has been assessed by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

near-threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qu ...

. It faces threats from degradation of roosting habitat in caves, and may also be threatened by subsistence hunting. The bat's population also depends on the availability of caves as day-roosts. It is not protected by any laws or international agreements, and the presence of the species in protected areas is not known.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q309330 Hipposideros Mammals described in 1947 Bats of Africa Taxonomy articles created by Polbot