An old collection reveals an additional distribution record of the Greater Long-tongued Fruit Bat Macroglossus sobrinus K. Anderson, 1911 (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) from southern West Bengal, India

Abstract

Greater Long-tongued Fruit Bat Macroglossus sobrinus K Anderson, 1911 is one of the small fruit bat found in South and Southeast Asia. In India, this species has only been reported from northern West Bengal, Sikkim and Northeast India. Upon detailed examination of the external morphology, skull and dentition of a single bat specimen, which was collected from Narendrapur, South 24- Parganas district in West Bengal (southern West Bengal) during the year 1995 and deposited in the National Zoological Collections of Zoological Survey of India, was identified as Macroglossus sobrinus. It is the first report on the occurrence of the species from southern West Bengal, extended distribution by more than 600 km southward from the known localities in Darjeeling in northern West Bengal.

Keywords

• greater long-tongued fruit bat
• macroglossus sobrinus
• narendrapur
• national zoological collections