Stoliczka's trident bat (''Aselliscus stoliczkanus'') is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the family

Hipposideridae The Hipposideridae are a family (biology), 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 fa ...

. It is found in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

Taxonomy

Stoliczka's trident bat was described as a new species in 1871 by

George Edward Dobson George Edward Dobson Royal Society, FRS Linnean Society of London, FLS Zoological Society of London, FZS (4 September 1848 at Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland – 26 November 1895) was an Irish zoologist, photographer and army surgeon. He ...

. 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 by

Ferdinand Stoliczka Ferdinand Stoliczka (Czech language, Czech written Stolička, 7 June 1838 – 19 June 1874) was a Moravian palaeontologist who worked in India on paleontology, geology and various aspects of zoology, including ornithology, malacology, and herpe ...

Penang Island Penang Island is the main constituent island of the Malaysian state of Penang. It is located off the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Malacca Strait, with the Penang Strait separating the island from Seberang Perai on the mainla ...

, Malaysia. Dobson placed it in the genus ''

Asellia ''Asellia'' is a genus of bat in the family Hipposideridae. It contains the following species: * Arabian trident bat (''Asellia arabica'') * Somalian trident bat (''Asellia italosomalica'') * Patrizi's trident leaf-nosed bat (''Asellia patriz ...

'', with a scientific name of ''Asellia stoliczkanus''. In 1952, Colin Campbell Sanborn published a revision of the species, in which he considered multiple other names as

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

, including ''Phyllorhina trifida'' and ''Triaenops wheeleri''. Additionally, he revised its genus, moving it from ''Asellia'' to '' Aselliscus''.

Description

Stoliczka's trident bat is a small bat with a head and body length of , a forearm length of , and a tail length of . The hairs on its back are bicolored, with the bases nearly white and the tips brown. The fur on the belly is paler in color. Its

nose-leaf A nose-leaf, or leaf nose, is an often large, lance-shaped nose, found in bats of the Phyllostomidae, Hipposideridae, and Rhinolophidae families. Because these bats Animal echolocation, echolocate nasally, this nose-leaf is thought to serve a role ...

has three points on the upper edge, with two smaller leaflets on each side.

Range and habitat

Stoliczka's trident bat has a wide range in Asia, and can be found in China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is found at a range of elevations from above sea level. It is found in lowland subtropical and

tropical forest Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the Tropic of Cancer, tropics of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q307762 Aselliscus Mammals described in 1871 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by George Edward Dobson Bats of Asia