Genus Pipistrellus Pipistrelles

A new Pipistrelle bat from the oceanic Island of Príncipe (Western Central Africa)

“…Figure 7 illustrates examples of three calls with different combinations of the FM and QCF elements. The mean ± SD and range of the analyzed sequences of calls ( N = 40) are as follows: Start Frequency, 55.47 ± 8.43 (44.75–74.05) kHz; End Frequency, 44.71 ± 1.44 (41.92–47.83) kHz; Maximum Energy Frequency or Peak Frequency, 45.69 ± 1.26 (43.9–48.3) kHz; Duration, 5.82 ± 1.39 (5.32–9.41) ms; Inter-pulse interval, 90.55 ± 8.89 (72–114.7) ms. As expected, the Peak Frequency value found is similar to the value (45 kHz) of the Palearctic Pipistrellus pipistrellus, which is approximately the same size ( Van Cakenbergue and Happold 2013 ), and higher than the values reported for the larger pipistrelles Laephotis kirinyaga (43.9 kHz) and P. nyanza (40.4 kHz). These comparisons must be considered tentative because the last values were obtained from bats flying in a cage instead of from free-flying bats ( Monadjem et al 2021a ).…”

“…Additionally, the baculum of the male we examined from Príncipe Island is distinctly long with expanded tips ( Fig. 5 ) and completely different from the spatulate-like baculum reported for Neoromicia ( Hill and Harrison 1987 ; Monadjem et al 2013 ; Van Cakembergue and Happold 2013 ). These characters indicate that they belong to the recently described genus Pseudoromicia ( Monadjem et al 2021a ), which agrees with our molecular data, although the pipistrelles from Príncipe Island are slightly smaller in all measurements (external, cranial, and dental) than the any other species of Pseudoromicia ( Tables 3 and 4 ).…”

“…nov. from all other African pipistrelle-like bats. Its moderately inflated skull in lateral profile differs from the flattened skull of Laephotis and the highly inflated skull in Afronycteris ( Van Cakenbergue and Happold 2013 ). It is also distinguished from Afronycteris by the absence of P 1 .…”

“…(C) Drawing of the tragi of: (e) P. principis sp. nov. (EBD 17358M, paratype); (f) P. brunnea from Van Cakenberghe and Happold (2013) and (g) P. brunnea (DM13229) from Monadjem et al (2013) and (D) dorsal and ventral views (from left to right) of bacula of: (h) P. principis sp. nov. (EBD 17358M, paratype); (i) P. rendalli from Hill and Harrison (1987) ; and (j) P. brunnea (DM13229) from Monadjem et al (2013) .…”