Hipposideros pomona

Morphological description Life history Distribution Habitat Roost sites and roosting patterns Emergence and flight pattern Foraging behaviour Echolocation calls Status and protection

Morphological Description

· Dorsal fur is brown-grey. Ventral fur is grey or white-grey.

· Juveniles are lighter than adults.

· This is a small or medium bat. Average forearm length 39.0mm (38.1-43.2mm) (Bates & Harrison, 1997). Average wingspan is cm. We caught 10 individuals from Yunnan in September 2003, with 41.5-44.2mm.

· The ears are relatively large, 20-23mm in length (Yunnan).

· Body mass 6-7.2g

Life history

· Little known

Distribution

The distribution in China is shown by the dots on the map (as given by Zhang et al. 1997).

Habitat

· Little known.

Roost sites and roosting behaviour

· Caves are the typical diurnal roosts. A roost containing about 300 bats was found in a cave in Yunnan.

· This species often shares their roosts with other bat species.

Emergence and flight pattern

· Most hipposiderid bats have wing shapes that make them adept at foraging in cluttered environments.

Foraging behaviour

· Little known

Echolocation calls

The echolocation call is a short constant frequency signal, with a brief frequency-modulated start and tail.

Call frequencies: frequencies of most energy at 120.8-125.6 kHz in Yunnan.

Status and protection

· Bats in the H. bicolor complex (which includes H. pomona) may contain several cryptic species (see for example Kingston et al., 2001), so their taxonomy and nomenclature should be treated with caution.

·There is no estimation of population size in China.

· Pomona leaf-nosed bats are at LR/lc, assessed by the Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN, 2006) and are not listed in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife in 1989.

· Caves and old buildings should be protected as their habitats.

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