The New Guinea big-eared bat or Papuan big-eared bat, (''Pharotis imogene''), is a

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

endemic to

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. It is listed as a critically endangered species due to ongoing habitat loss. It is the only known member of the genus ''Pharotis'', which is closely related to ''

Nyctophilus ''Nyctophilus'' is a genus of the vespertilionids or vesper bats. They are often termed Australian big-eared bats or long-eared bats, as the length of their ears often greatly exceeds that of the head. They are sometimes colloquially called “ ...

''. Previously, the species was believed to have been extinct since 1890. In 2014, researchers realized that a female bat collected near Kamali in 2012 was a member of this species.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Pharotis'' and the species ''Pharotis imogene'' were both described in 1914 by British zoologist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for ...

. The specimens used by Thomas to describe the species had been collected by

Lamberto Loria Lamberto Loria (12 February 1855 – 4 April 1913) was an Italian ethnographer, naturalist and explorer. Biography Born in Alexandria from a Jewish family, after the death of his mother Clara, he returned with his father Marco in Italy, in Pis ...

in 1890. Thomas obtained the specimens via

Giacomo Doria Marquis Giacomo Doria (1 November 1840 – 19 September 1913) was an Italian naturalist, botanist, herpetologist, and politician. He was the founder of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Genoa in 1867, and director from then until his de ...

of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale. The etymology of the prefix "''phar-''" is unclear. The suffix "''-otis''" is from

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

" οὖς," meaning "ear". Furthermore, the etymology or

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 ...

of ''imogene'' is also unclear. An arrangement within the family

Vespertilionidae Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat familie ...

, the common evening bats, allies this genus to the similar ''

'', within subfamilial taxon

Vespertilioninae The Vespertilioninae are a subfamily of vesper bats from the family Vespertilionidae. Classification Subfamily Vespertilioninae *Tribe Antrozoini **Genus '' Antrozous'' *** Pallid bat, ''Antrozous pallidus'' **Genus '' Bauerus'' *** Van Ge ...

as the tribe Nyctophilini, known as the big-eared bats of Australia and New Guinea.

Description

Its fur is dark brown; its ears and flight membranes are brown as well. It is similar in appearance to the small-toothed long-eared bat, ''Nyctophilus microdon,'' with which it is sometimes confused. It can be differentiated from ''Nyctophilus'' species by looking at the skin between the nostrils—in the New Guinea big-eared bat, this skin is hairless, while it has fine hairs in ''Nyctophilus''. Its forearm length is approximately . Its ears and tragi are both long, at and , respectively. Its head and body length is . Individuals weigh roughly .

Biology and ecology

Little is known about this species, as it is rarely encountered. Based on its large ears, however, it is hypothesized that it might hunt for insect prey using low-intensity echolocation. It possibly captures prey by

gleaning Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops in the field after harvest. During harvest, there is food that is left or missed often because it does not meet store standards for uniformity. Sometimes, fields are left because they were not ec ...

, which means plucking them off of a surface rather than aerial pursuit.

Range and habitat

The individual captured in 2012 was in a logged lowland rainforest of the Abau District of

. Its habitat preference is unknown, but possibly includes lowland

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...

woodlands or woodlands with patches of rainforest.

Conservation

In 2020, the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

classified this species as

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

. The species had not been definitively encountered since 1890. In 2012, researchers rediscovered the species when they captured an adult female, though at first they were unsure which species they had found. Due to its imperiled status, it is identified by the

Alliance for Zero Extinction Formed in 2000 and launched globally in 2005, the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) comprises 100 non-governmental biodiversity conservation organizations working to prevent species extinctions by identifying and safeguarding sites where species ...

as a species in danger of imminent

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. In 2013,

Bat Conservation International Bat Conservation International (BCI) is an international nongovernmental organization working to conserve bats and their habitats through conservation, education, and research efforts. BCI was founded in 1982 by bat biologist Merlin Tuttle, wh ...

listed this species as one of the 35 species of its worldwide priority list of conservation.

References

External links

Story detailing its rediscovery after feared extinction
{{Taxonbar, from=Q137630 Vesper bats Bats of Oceania Endemic fauna of Papua New Guinea Mammals of Papua New Guinea Critically endangered fauna of Oceania EDGE species Mammals described in 1914 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Bats of New Guinea