We carried out extensive field surveys in the dry forest portions of Madagascar to document the species of bats occurring in these regions. These data combined with information in the literature and museum specimen records indicate that 28 species of Chiroptera occur in this region of the island, of which we documented 27 during our inventories. The community composition at sites occurring in areas of water-eroded sedimentary rock is notably different from sites on alluvial substrates. In contrast to the majority of native land mammal species on Madagascar, much of the microchiropteran fauna is not dependent on large tracts of intact forest and anthropogenic perturbations of forests may have less direct impact on their long-term survival. Conservation strategies for Chiroptera in the dry regions of the island should focus on reducing various types of human disturbance of cave environments.

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Surveys and monitoring of 37 caves in and around the Ankarana Special Reserve, northern Madagascar, yielded evidence of hunting of bats and potential disturbance of bats by miners and tourists, and colony counts for several bat species of potential conservation concern. Colony size decreased by 95% and 14% for a colony of Hipposideros commersoni and a colony of Eidolon dupreanum, respectively, when recent evidence of hunting occurred at those colonies and those declines are probably attributable to hunting. Evidence of hunting occurred commonly at the roosts of those species and most commonly at the roosts of Rousettus madagascariensis. Hunting of pteropodids was associated with high vulnerability of roosts to hunters, little forest buffer between the cave and open savannah and the absence of tombs in the cave. Roost sites of the hunted species persisted for at least several years and this regularity may facilitate hunting. This work supports the ranking of E. dupreanum, R. madagascariensis and H. commersoni as species of conservation concern. Managers should consider the impact of tourist visits on bats and of increasing access to caves for tourism. Conservation efforts for the hunted species should also seek to protect vulnerable and unprotected cave roosts.

Using molecular genetics, male sexual organ morphology (baculum), and cranio-dental characters, we describe a new spe-cies of the genus Neoromicia from Madagascar, N. robertsi sp. nov. It is presumed to be endemic to the island and isknown from three specimens taken in montane areas of the eastern central region. The new species shows 1.0 % and 2.8%divergence in the 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA genes, respectively, from its nearest congener and is notably larger in cranio-dental measurements than other members of the genus occurring on Madagascar. This new species was previously iden-tified as N. melckorum, which is considered a junior synonym of southern African N. capensis. Neoromicia malagasyen-sis, an endemic to central western Madagascar, is the sister species to N. robertsi and the two are best considered vicariantspecies. Specimens provisionally assigned to N. malagasyensis, but notably smaller in baculum and skull size, and withdifferent baculum morphology, probably represent another unknown species from the island. Given the apparent rarity ofN. robertsi compared with other Malagasy members of this genus living in the eastern portion of Madagascar, it is considered a taxon of conservation concern.

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The species delimitations of African, Arabian Peninsula, and western Indian Ocean island members of the Molossidae bat species complex Chaerephon pumilus remain largely unresolved. Based on genetic analyses this group is paraphyletic, with C. leucogaster nested within C. pumilus sensu lato, and the latter is composed of several distinct clades. DNA was isolated from a specimen of C. p. pumilus obtained at the type locality (Massawa, Eritrea). Although incomplete, this sequence allowed us to clearly define which clade is referable to nominate pumilus, a critical step in resolving the systematics of this species complex. Using morphological and molecular genetic (cytochrome b and D-loop sequences) characters, we establish that C. leucogaster and C. 'pumilus' on Madagascar represent two different lineages and that the Malagasy population referred to C. 'pumilus' is specifically distinct from those on Africa, the islands and mainland Africa. The population of C. pusillus from the western Seychelles atoll of Aldabra cluster with that of the Comoros, rather than Madagascar. For numerous other species of volant vertebrates (bats and birds), the origin of the Aldabra fauna is mixed between the Comoros and Madagascar (e.g., Goodman & Ranivo 2008; O'Brien et al. 2009; Pasquet et al. 2007; Warren et al. 2003). Hence, in the case of these 9-17 g Chaerephon bats, these water barriers have been associated with the isolation and subsequent differentiation of populations after successful dispersal and colonization events. In contrast, within the Comoros, there is no apparent genetic structure between with the individual islands, which are separated by 40 and 80 km, indicating that this distance is regularly traversed by these bats and giving rise to intra-archipelago panmixia of populations.