First record of Ratanaworabhans’s Fruit Bat Megaerops niphanae Yenbutra & Felten, 1983 (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) from Bangladesh

Abstract

This note provides a morphological confirmation of the occurrence of Ratanaworabhans’s Fruit Bat Megaerops niphanae in Bangladesh. Although previously recorded in neighbouring territories in India, this constitutes the first country record for the taxon and highlights the current incompleteness of faunal knowledge and potential for future discoveries in the country. Greater survey effort and sustained investments into developing taxonomic capacity and museum collections in Bangladesh are required to realize this potential however.

Keywords

• Bangladesh
• bats
• new country record.