The big-eared roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros macrobullatus'') is a species of bat in the family

Hipposideridae The Hipposideridae are a family of bats commonly known as the Old World leaf-nosed bats. While it has often been seen as a subfamily, Hipposiderinae, of the family Rhinolophidae, it is now more generally classified as its own family.Simmons, 2 ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, known from

Kangean Islands The Kangean Islands or simply Kangean (Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Kangean'') is a collective name referred to the area of Kangean (the main island) and its surrounding islands lie in the north of Bali in northern Bali Sea, northwest of the L ...

, southwestern Sulawesi and

Seram Island Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent ...

. It roosts in caves and tree hollows and probably forages in woodland. It is threatened by habitat loss through logging and other human activities.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described in 1941 by American zoologist

George Henry Hamilton Tate George Henry Hamilton Tate (April 30, 1894 – December 24, 1953) was a British-born American zoologist and botanist, who worked as a mammalogist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In his lifetime he wrote several b ...

. Tate described it as a new subspecies of the

bicolored roundleaf bat The bicolored roundleaf bat (''Hipposideros bicolor'') is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae found in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. This bat inhabits caves, rock crevices and tunnels among lowland for ...

, with a

trinomen In biology, trinomial nomenclature refers to names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or ternar ...

of ''Hipposideros bicolor macrobullatus''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

had been collected by G. Heinrich in 1931 in Maros, Indonesia. Tate wrote that its skull was "noteworthy on the account of the large bullae," likely inspiring the specific epithet "''macrobullatus''" from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

'' makrós'' meaning "large" and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

'' bulla''. In 1986, it was revised to full species status.

Description

Its forearm length is . Its fur is brown or reddish brown.

Range and habitat

It is

. Within Indonesia, it is known from the

, and southwestern Sulawesi.

Conservation

As of 2016, it is evaluated as a

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessarily ...

species by the IUCN.

Habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

is a likely threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1762185 Hipposideros Bats of Indonesia Endemic fauna of Indonesia Bat, Big-eared roundleaf Bat, Big-eared roundleaf Fauna of Seram Island Bat, Big-eared roundleaf Mammals described in 1941 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by George Henry Hamilton Tate