Lesser woolly horseshoe bat
Species of bat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The lesser woolly horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus beddomei), also called Beddome's horseshoe bat, is a species of bat in the family Rhinolophidae. It is found in India and Sri Lanka. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, caves, and urban areas.
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| Lesser woolly horseshoe bat | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Rhinolophidae |
| Genus: | Rhinolophus |
| Species: | R. beddomei |
| Binomial name | |
| Rhinolophus beddomei Andersen, 1905 | |
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| Lesser woolly horseshoe bat range | |
Taxonomy and etymology
It was described as a new species in 1905 by Danish mammalogist Knud Andersen.[2] The eponym for the species name "beddomei" is Colonel Richard Henry Beddome, a British officer and naturalist who spent a good deal of his career in India.[3] Beddome was the collector of the holotype for this species. The holotype was collected in the Wayanad district of India.[2] As Rhinolophus is quite speciose, it is divided into closely related "species groups." Andersen placed the lesser woolly horseshoe bat in the philippensis species group,[2] but Simmons includes it in the trifoliatus species group.[4] Some authors have considered it a subspecies of the woolly horseshoe bat; since 1992, it has usually been accorded full species status.[5]
Description
The bat's head and body length is 7 centimetres (2.8 in), with a forearm 6 centimetres (2.4 in) long and a wingspan of 33 centimetres (13 in). Females are larger than males. Pelage is rough-textured and woolly. Body completely dark grayish brown, upper side grizzled. Wing membrane blackish brown. The ears are prominent, well-fluted, and pointy and nose-leaf is complex with a distinctive shape.
Biology and ecology
It is nocturnal, using echolocation to navigate in the dark. It echolocates at frequencies of 31.0–38.3kHz; its frequencies of maximum energy are 38.5 and 38.7 kHz. Its call duration is 48.2–58.0 seconds.[6]