The Maggie Taylor's roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros maggietaylorae'') is a species of bat 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, 2 ...

. It is found in West Papua (

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

) and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 1981 by James Dale Smith and J. Edwards Hill. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

had been collected in 1979 in Lengmebung Cave on

New Ireland Island New Ireland ( Tok Pisin: ''Niu Ailan'') or Latangai, is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately in area with 120,000 people. It is named after the island of Ireland. It is the largest island of New Ireland Province, lying northe ...

. The

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

for 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, bo ...

"''maggietaylorae''" is Margaret (Maggie) Taylor. Taylor had financed Smith's research expedition to the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

in 1979.

Description

It has a forearm length of . It has dense, woolly fur that is shorter on the head and neck than the rest of the body. Its back fur is grayish brown, while its belly fur is grayish white. It has a

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-physiolog ...

of for a total of 30 teeth.

Range and habitat

It is found on the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

(both the

n and the

n sides) as well as several islands of the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It has been documented at elevations up to above sea level.

Conservation

As of 2008, it is evaluated as a

least-concern species 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. No major threats to this species have been identified.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1767744 Hipposideros Bats of Oceania Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Mammals described in 1981 Taxa named by John Edwards Hill Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Bats of Southeast Asia Bats of New Guinea