Myotis sicarius Thomas, 1915

18. Myotis sicarius Thomas, 1915 View in CoL

(Mandelli’s Mouse–eared Bat)

New material: A released male caught at Mandal, Chamoli district , Uttarakhand in mid– April 2019 .

Morphological description of specimen: An adult male was caught in a mist net set over a shallow, shaded stream along the edge of an oak forest. This relatively large Myotis had a forearm of 50.9 mm and 10 g body weight. The specimen was identified in the field by its size, the ratio of the lengths of hindfoot to tibia and relatively large ears (but not as large as in My. altarium ). The pelage consisted of short hairs that were dark brown to black above and smokey greyish black below ( Fig. 15E View FIGURE 15 ), with a conspicuous yellowish patch surrounding the belly. These fur characteristics also differentiate it from the similar-sized My. altarium . The naked portion of the muzzle was flesh coloured while ears and wing membranes were dark brown. The wings were attached to the base of the toe which were covered with a few scattered hairs.

DNA: No biological material was obtained for this released specimen. However, Chakravarty et al. (2020) reported a COI sequence (GB MN339187 View Materials ) of another individual caught in the same place and provisionally identified as “ M. cf. annectans ”. This sequence was almost identical (a single mutation) to one My. sicarius from Nepal (GB OR413180) deposited recently by Győrössy et al. (2024), which confirmed their taxonomic identity as sicarius . Reference sequences from Indochinese My. annectans were genetically very distinct from M. sicarius (e.g., HM541011 View Materials ; Francis et al. 2010; Győrössy et al. 2024; Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 ).

Locality records and ecological notes: The present datum constitutes the first record of this species from the Western Himalayas, which is a significant geographic extension of this rare and vulnerable ( Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu 2019b), so far localised species known from the Central and Eastern Himalaya ( Bates & Harrison 1997) and (with a single record) from North Vietnam ( Győrössy et al. 2024).

The call structure of the released specimen was narrowband (38.81 kHz bandwidth) with prominent FM and QCF components, resembling those of Pipistrellus sp. The release call had duration of 5.12 ms, an ending frequency of 33.14 kHz and peak frequency of 37.41 kHz (Table 13). In the study area its calls overlapped with those of Pi. babu ( Chakravarty et al. 2020; see below).

Taxonomic notes: We correct here a previous preliminary identification of a bat reported as “ My. cf. annectans ” in Chakravarty et al. (2020) to My. sicarius in the light of the new specimen analyzed morphologically here, and to the COI sequence of a previous individual from Mandal which is nearly identical compared to a sequence from Nepal (i.e., close to the type locality in Sikkim, India) .