Fly River roundleaf bat


The Fly River roundleaf bat is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae. It is found in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Taxonomy

The Fly River roundleaf bat was described as a new species in 1886 by British mammalogist Oldfield Thomas and Italian naturalist Giacomo Doria.
They initially placed it in the now-defunct genus Phyllorhina, with a scientific name of Phyllorhina muscina.
The holotype had been collected by Luigi D'Albertis along the Fly River of Papua New Guinea.
In 1941, George Henry Hamilton Tate divided the genus Hipposideros into species groups of morphologically similar species.
He named one group the Hipposideros muscinus group: in it, he placed the Fly River roundleaf bat, Semon's leaf-nosed bat, Wollaston's roundleaf bat, and the northern leaf-nosed bat.
In 1963, however, John Edwards Hill included the Fly River roundleaf bat as part of the Hipposideros cyclops species group along with all previous members of the H. muscinus group, as well as H. cyclops and H. camerunensis.

Description

Based on two individuals, Thomas and Doria noted that the Fly River roundleaf bat has a head and body length of ; a tail length of ; and a forearm length of.

Range and habitat

The Fly River roundleaf bat is found only on the island of New Guinea, where its range includes both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
It has been documented at a range of elevations from above sea level.
It is found in forested habitat.

Conservation

As of 2017, the Fly River roundleaf bat is evaluated as a least-concern species by the IUCN—its lowest conservation priority.
It meets the criteria for this classification because it has a relatively wide geographic range and its lowland habitat is mostly intact.