Nyctimene cephalotes Pallas 1767

111.

Pallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bat

Nyctimene cephalotes

French: Nyctiméne a grosse téte / German: Pallas-Rohrennasenflughund / Spanish: Nyctimeno de Pallas

Other common names: Northern Tube-nosed Bat, Pallas’s Tube-nosed Bat, Torresian Tube-nosed Bat

Taxonomy. Vespertilio cephalotes Pallas, 1767,

“Celeb[es]. atque Amiciss.” Restricted by KE. Andersen in 1912 to “ Celebes; Amboina; Tenimber Is[land].; Timor,” Indonesia.

Nyctimene cephalotes is in the cephalotes species group. A record from Numfor Island off of north-western New Guinea apparently represents an undescribed species of Nyctimene from the Cenderawasih (= Geelvink) Bay region. Nyctimene cephalotes has been reported from mainland New Guinea and Moa Island, but these are now tentatively regarded as misidentified N. robinson: and are included under that species. Nyctimene keasti might be best recognized as a synonym or subspecies of N. cephalotes based on limited genetic data and the few morphological differences that distinguish it. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution.

N.c.cephalotesPallas,1767—SulaIs(MangoleandSanana),CMoluccas(Buru,Am-bon,andSeram),TanimbarIs(Yamdena),andELesserSundaIs(Timor),althoughitisprobablyextinctonTimor.

N. c. aplini Kitchener, 1995 — Sulawesi.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 87-4-100- 6 mm,tail 17-8-25- 4 mm, ear 12: 7-18 mm, hindfoot 13: 7-18 mm, forearm 62-2-69- 6 mm; weight 40-49 g. Head of Pallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bat is broad, with deep face, broad, bluntly pointed ears, and tubular divergent nostrils. Eyes are large, with amberirises. Pelage is thick and woolly. Dorsal pelage is mottled gray and brown (hairs with dark brown bases, pale gray brown middles, and medium brown tips), with distinctive thin dark blackish brown mid-dorsal stripe (3-5- 5 mm thick) stretching from shoulders to rump. Ventral pelage is pale grayish brown, with some yellowish patches. Females generally have paler dorsum than males. There is yellow spotting on forearms, wings, and ears (ears sometimes not spotted); wings are dark brown, with greenish wash. Second digit of wing has a claw, and wing attaches at second digit of foot. Tail is short, black, and wrinkled, and narrow uropatagium connects at base and stretches to calcar at ankles. Claws are brown. Skull and mandible are robust; rostrum is short; incisive foramen to posterior palatal length is shorter relative to postorbital breadth compared with the Common Tube-nosed Fruit Bat (N. albiventer); condylo-basal length is generally longer relative to both rostrum height, interorbital breadth, and cranial height compared with Keast’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bat (N. keasti); lambdoidal and sagittal crests are moderately developed; and margin of posterior palate is a broad U-shape and extends well beyond M'. Single lower incisor is completely deciduous, falling out before adulthood; lower molars are broad and rounded in dorsal view; C, replaces incisors and is long and powerful; and P,is elongated and longer than P,andP,.

Habitat. Primarily primary tropical moist forest from sea level up to an elevation of at least 1800 m.

Food and Feeding. Pallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bat is frugivorous. It might also eat insects, but they might be accidentally ingested.

Breeding. Pregnant Pallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bats with single embryos have been reported in October and January in Sulawesi, and an adult male with descended testes was captured in January. Two pregnant females were collected in mid-November on Sanana Island.

Activity patterns. Pallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bat is nocturnal, roosting in trees during the day.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Pallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bats roost alone.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. Pallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit Bat has a relatively wide distribution but is dependent on primary forests. Deforestation seems to be its greatest threat, and it might have disappeared from Timor already due to the near complete loss of primary moist forest on the island. This species is occasionally hunted in some regions and sold as food in markets.

Bibliography. Andersen (1912b), Bergmans (2001), Bergmans & Rozendaal (1988), Colgan & Costa (2002), Flannery (1995a), Kitchener, Packer & Suyanto (1995), Newbound et al. (2008), Tsang (2016¢), Wiantoro et al. (2017).