Rhinolophus andamanensis Dobson 1872

6. Rhinolophus andamanensis Dobson, 1872 Homfray���s Horseshoe Bat New records North Andaman Islands: Burmadera, Chalis Ek, Chipo, Interview Island, and Ramnagar; Middle Andaman Islands: Baratang Island; Little Andaman Island: Hut Bay and V.K. Pur. Previous records North Andaman Islands: Diglipur (ZSIK) and base of Saddle Peak (HZM); Middle Andaman Islands: Interview Island (ZSIK); South Andaman Islands: Mount Harriet (ZSIK). Comments Endemic to Andaman Islands. Sixty-five individuals were captured of which 22 specimens were collected from many locations throughout the Islands from North Andaman (the northernmost sighting was from Chipo) to Little Andaman Island. R. andamanensis was originally describ- ed as a distinct form, though Dobson (1872: 337) stated that it ���resembles R. affinis, and may be referred to the same section of the genus���. Andersen (1905 a, 1905 b) observed that it might be the local representative of R. affinis on the islands. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) listed this taxon as a distinct species, though placing it under R. affinis. Sinha (1973) treated this taxon as a subspecies of R. affinis, but Bates and Harrison (1997) synonymized it with R. affinis. Srinivasulu and Srinivasulu (2012) listed it as a subspecies of R. affinis. Aul et al. (2014) misidentified this taxon as R. yunnanensis (we later inspected her collections and found them to be misidentified specimens of R. andamanensis) and reported the sightings from Paget Island, East Island, Gandhinagar, Chalis Ek, and Saddle Peak in North Andaman Islands; Interview Island, Baratang Island, and Strait Island in Middle Andaman Islands, and Little Andaman Island. Though similar to R. yunnanensis in size, the aspects that visibly separate the two taxa are the presence of three grooves on the lower lip in R. andamanensis as opposed to presence of a single groove in R. yunnanensis, and characteristic differences in the shape of the sella. R. andamanensis is separate from R. affinis under which it has been synonymized, due to its morphometrics, COI gene sequence and echolocation characteristics.
Published as part of Srinivasulu, Chelmala, Srinivasulu, Aditya, Srinivasulu, Bhargavi, Gopi, Asad, Dar, Tauseef Hamid, Bates, Paul J. J., Rossiter, Stephen J. & Jones, Gareth, 2017, Recent surveys of bats from the Andaman Islands, India: diversity, distribution, and echolocation characteristics, pp. 419-437 in Acta Chiropterologica 19 (2) on page 429, DOI: 10.3161/15081109ACC2017.19.2.018, http://zenodo.org/record/3942489
{"references":["DOBSON, G. E. 1872. Brief description of five new species of Rhinolophine bats. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 41: 336 - 338.","ANDERSEN, K. 1905 a. A list of the species and subspecies of the genus Rhinolophus, with some notes on their geographical distribution. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 7, 16: 648 - 662.","ANDERSEN, K. 1905 b. On some bats of the genus Rhinolophus, with remarks on their mutual affinities, and descriptions of twenty-six new forms. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 2: 75 - 145.","SINHA, Y. P. 1973. Taxonomic studies on the Indian horseshoe bats of the genus Rhinolophus Lacepede. Mammalia, 37: 603 - 630.","BATES, P. J. J., and D. L. HARRISON. 1997. Bats of the Indian Sub-continent. Harrison Zoological Museum Publication, Sevenoaks, UK, xvi + 258 pp.","SRINIVASULU, C., and B. SRINIVASULU. 2012. South Asian mammals: their diversity, distribution and status. Springer, New York, xii + 467 pp.","AUL, B., P. J. J. BATES, D. L. HARRISON, and G. MARIMUTHU. 2014. Diversity, distribution and status of bats on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Oryx, 48: 204 - 212."]}