''Mops bakarii'' is a species of mastiff bat, described in 2008. It is endemic to

Pemba Island Pemba Island (; ''al-Jazīra al-khadrāʔ''; ; ) is a Tanzanian island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean. Geography file:Map of Zanzibar Archipelago-en.svg, left, The main islands of the ...

, which lies in the Indian Ocean off the coast of

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Taxonomy

''Mops bakarii'' was described as a new species in 2008. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

had been collected in 2006 in the attic of a hospital in the village of Kipangani near Ngezi Forest Reserve. Within the genus ''Mops'' it is in the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

''Xiphonycteris''. Other species in this subgenus include the Sierra Leone free-tailed bat, Peterson's free-tailed bat, the

dwarf free-tailed bat The dwarf free-tailed bat (''Mops nanulus'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. It is found in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Uganda. It ...

Spurrell's free-tailed bat Spurrell's free-tailed bat (''Mops spurrelli'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae named after Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell. It is found in Central Africa, Central and West Africa, West Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or ...

, and the

Railer bat The Railer bat (''Mops thersites'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea ...

. The

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

for the

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

"''bakarii''" was Bakari Asseid "to recognize his significant contributions to the conservation of natural habitats and biota of

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

References

Mops (bat) Mammals described in 2008 Bats of Africa {{Molossidae-stub