Kerivoula krauensis : Krau Woolly Bat
photo: http://www.ttu-mbea.org/
Abstract
A new species of small Kerivoula is described from peninsular Malaysia. It is similar in size and form to Kerivoula hardwickii Miller 1898 or K. intermedia Hill and Francis 1984, but is distinguished by its distinctive colouration — dorsal fur has extensive black bases with shiny golden tips, ventral fur has dark grey bases with whitish-buff tips — as well as several characters of dentition and skull shape. Sequence analysis of the first 648 base pairs of cytochrome oxidase I gene (DNA barcode) indicates a divergence of at least 11% from all other species of Kerivoula, a difference comparable to that between other species of Kerivoula.
Keywords: DNA barcode, Kerivoula, new species, Malaysia
Kerivoula krauensis was discovered for the first time in the 1990s in Krau Wildlife Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia. In 2007 it was officially described and given the name K. krauensis. When “ensis” is added to a name it means that the animal is from, or belongs to that place. So Kerivoula krauensis is the Kerivoula belonging to, or from Krau. So far it has only been found in Krau Wildlife Reserve, so it would be described as endemic to Krau, although there are some recent possible records from Borneo and Sumatra.
Charles M. Francis, Tigga Kingston & Akbar Zubaid. 2007. A new species of Kerivoula (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from peninsular Malaysia. Acta Chiropterologica. 9(1):1-12. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3161/1733-5329(2007)9[1:ANSOKC]2.0.CO;2
