Great New Zealand bat
| Great New Zealand bat | ||||||||||||
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Specimen in the Auckland Museum |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Mystacina robusta | ||||||||||||
| Dwyer , 1962 |
The Great New Zealand bat ( Mystacina robusta ) is an extinct species of bats from the family of New Zealand bats . When it was first described scientifically in 1962, it was still regarded as a subspecies of the New Zealand lesser bat ( Mystacina tuberculata ); In 1985 it was given the status of an independent species due to the morphological differences between the two taxa ( Hill & Daniel 1985 ).
The species is known to be subfossil and fossil from the North Island and the South Island , where it was widespread at the time of the colonization of New Zealand by the Māori . In the 20th century it was only found on the islands of Stewart Island , Big South Cape and Solomon, located south of the South Island , where it was last seen in 1965 and probably exterminated by the stalking of imported rats by 1967. The New Zealand greater bat was larger than the closely related New Zealand lesser bat that still exists today. Other distinguishing features were the shorter and wider nostrils, the shorter wings and the stronger palate. The length (including the tail) was 90 millimeters, the forearm length 46.6 to 48.3 millimeters, the shin length 19.0 to 19.7 millimeters and the ear length 18.8 to 19.1 millimeters. The body weight was 25 to 35 grams.
New Zealand bats have powerful legs that allow them to crawl nimbly across the ground. The New Zealand greater bat flew slowly, never rising more than two or three meters above the ground. It mainly fed on insects that it caught on the ground, but also on chicks of the dark shearwater ( Puffinus griseus ). She used the breeding caves of shearwater as a place to sleep. The mating season was from April to May.
literature
- MJ Daniels: Greater Short-tailed Bat. In The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals , edited by Carolyn M. King. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1995
- John E. Hill and James D. Smith: Bats, A Natural History . London: British Museum of Natural History, 1984.
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Bats of the World . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
- JC Hill and MJ Daniel: Systematics of the New Zealand Short-tailed Bat Mystacina Gray, 1843 (Chiroptera: Mystacinidae). Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History, Zoology 48 (1985): 279-300.
- TF Flannery: Mammals of the South-West Pacific & Moluccan Islands . Chatswood: Reed Books 1995, 464 pages; ISBN 0-7301-0417-6 .
Web links
- Mystacina robusta in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Chiroptera Specialist Group, 1996. Retrieved on July 3 of 2007.
- An analysis of skeletal size variation in Mystacina robusta Dwyer, 1962 (Chiroptera: Mystacinidae)
- Terra Nature - Greater Short-tailed Bat