The Somalian trident bat (''Asellia italosomalica'') is a species of bat found in the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

Taxonomy

The Somalian trident bat was described as a new subspecies of the trident bat (''A. tridens'') by

Oscar de Beaux Oscar de Beaux (5 December 1879 – 29 September 1955) was an Italian mammalogist. His studies of mammals primarily concerned the Italian colonies of Africa. De Beaux was also a conservationist, authoring one of the first papers to argue the e ...

in 1931. De Beaux gave it the trinomen ''A. tridens italosomalica''. It was maintained as a subspecies until 2011, when Benda et al. published that this population had a genetic distance of more than 12% from other members of its genus. They stated that this difference was enough to justify elevating it from a subspecies to a species.

Biology and ecology

It is a

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

species, roosting in sheltered places during the day such as caves. It is

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...

, with these cave roosts consisting of up to 1,000 individuals. The Somalian trident bat is found in the

in Somalia, as well as the Yemeni island of Socotra. It inhabits arid areas such as savanna, shrubland, grassland, and desert.

Conservation

As of 2017, 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 necessaril ...

species by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. It meets the criteria for this designation because it was only recently recognized as a full species, and as such, information is lacking regarding its ecology and distribution.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q81849869 Asellia Mammals described in 1931 Bats of Africa