Between 19, Antόnio Rocha da Torre collected approximately 90 plant specimens as part of a national survey, and again visited Namuli between 19. Vincent on his visit in 1932, which included some of the first photographs of Mount Namuli and the Ukalini forest ( Vincent, 1933 a, 1933 b). Almost 50 years passed before the next account of the area was published by the Ornithologist J. Last in 1885 - a Victorian explorer reporting to the Royal Geographical Society. The first account of the area was carried out by the British Consul Henry O'Neill in 1883, shortly followed by J. 1), is one of the focal sites of these expeditions that has been relatively well sampled, both historically and recently, compared to the surrounding mountains. Mount Namuli, in Zambezia Province ( Fig. Over the last 20 years, a series of biological surveys has focused on filling this data gap. The ecology of the high-altitude mountains (> 1,000 m) of northern Mozambique has historically been overlooked until recently in comparison to other montane eco-regions in surrounding countries, mainly due to inaccessibility and human conflict. It joins other coastal and montane forest endemics in defining the bat fauna of south-eastern Africa. The new species echolocates at a mean peak frequency of 76.9 kHz and shows an affinity to forest habitats, which are highly threatened in the surrounding region. simulator Andersen, 1904 by non-overlapping external and cranial measurements. swinnyi Gough, 1908 (including two recently described cryptic species) and R. It also differs from the genetically closely related R. These include the presence of a bony bar forming the interorbital foramena, rostrum shape, ear length and highly differing bacular morphologies. maendeleo share similar external and craniodental measurements, but can be distinguished based on a number of key characters. It is thus unclear whether this unexpected phylogenetic position reflects morphological convergences between members of the adami- and capensis-groups, or whether the morphology-based adami-group should be reconsidered. Molecular reconstructions clearly suggest the new species belongs to the capensis-group, but no members of the adami-group were included in this analysis (due to lacking data). Morphologically, the new species is very similar to Rhinolophus maendeleo Kock, Csorba and Howell, 2000 of the adami-group, but lacks some key morphological characters of this group (large ears, narrow skull, long palate). A biological survey of Mount Namuli in 2009 resulted in the collection of five specimens of a horseshoe bat species (Rhinolophidae) that is here described as a new species from Mozambique. A series of biological surveys have focused on filling this data gap, with Mount Namuli in Zambezia Province one of the focal sites of these expeditions. The ecology of the high-altitude mountains of northern Mozambique is understudied in comparison to surrounding countries.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |