Keast's tube-nosed fruit bat (''Nyctimene keasti'') is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae found in

Babar Babar ( ur, ), also variously spelled as Baber, Babur, and Babor is a male given name of Pashto, and Persian language, Persian origin, and a popular male given name in Pakistan. It is generally taken in reference to the Persian language, Persian ...

Tanimbar The Tanimbar Islands, also called ''Timur Laut'', are a group of about 65 islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. The largest and most central of the islands is Yamdena; others include Selaru to the southwest of Yamdena, Larat and F ...

, and the

Kai Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku (province), Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally sp ...

. It was named after Colin Keast.

Description

Keast's tube-nosed fruit bat is a species in the genus '' Nyctimene'', which includes bats that have prominent nostrils splaying out in opposite directions. The pelage of the species is gender dimorphic, males are notably darker and fawn-coloured, females are predominantly buff-yellow lightened by a drab colour at the base of the hair.

Taxonomy

The taxon was first described as a subspecies of ''

Nyctimene albiventer The common tube-nosed fruit bat (''Nyctimene albiventer'') is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. It is found at islands north of Australia, and in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. Taxonomy Th ...

'' in 1993. A review of the systematics two years later elevated the status of the group to species and distinguished island populations previously described as ''

Nyctimene cephalotes Pallas's tube-nosed bat (''Nyctimene cephalotes''), also known as the Torresian tube-nosed bat or northern tube-nosed bat, is a species of megabat in the ''Nyctimene'' genus found in Indonesia. Its range may extend to New Guinea, but sightings m ...

''. The holotype was collected in 1992 in a mist net, close to sea level, at the edge of forest near a lake, on an island in the

Maluku (province) Maluku is a province of Indonesia. It comprises the central and southern regions of the Maluku Islands. The main city and capital of Maluku province is Ambon on the small Ambon Island. The land area is 62,946 km2, and the total population ...

. The epithet of the species refers to an honorary assistant at the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

, Colin Keast, who assisted in the preparation of the specimen's skulls.

References

*D.E. Wilson & D.M. Reeder, 2005: ''Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference''. Third Edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore Nyctimene (genus) Mammals described in 1993 Taxa named by Darrell Kitchener Bats of Southeast Asia {{fruit-bat-stub