First record of Ratanaworabhans’s Fruit Bat Megaerops niphanae Yenbutra & Felten, 1983 (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) from Bangladesh

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Mohammad Nurul Islam
Amir Hossan Shaikat
Kazi Muhammad Fakhrul Islam
Subrata Kumar Shil
Sazeda Akter
Mohammad Mizanur Rahman
Mohammad Mahmudul Hassan
Ariful Islam
Shahneaz Ali Khan
Neil Furey

Abstract

This note provides a morphological confirmation of the occurrence of Ratanaworabhans’s Fruit Bat Megaerops niphanae in Bangladesh. Although previously recorded in neighbouring territories in India, this constitutes the first country record for the taxon and highlights the current incompleteness of faunal knowledge and potential for future discoveries in the country. Greater survey effort and sustained investments into developing taxonomic capacity and museum collections in Bangladesh are required to realize this potential however.

 

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References

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