Record of Tylonycteris pachypus (Lesser Bamboo Bat) from Andaman Islands.

摘要

There was very limited and fragmented information on the bat fauna in the Andaman Islandsbefore the study initiated in the Islands (2003-2007) and during this survey 25 species of batswere recorded along with the roosts and habitats. Our survey reconf irmed the presence of thebamboo bat after almost 3 decades from its last report by Hill in 1967. Bamboo bats are a groupof small batswith uniqueskull and morphology. Thisspecies has been recorded fromsouthernand northeastern South Asia, southern China, and much of Southeast Asia. In South Asia, thisspecies is widely distributed and is presently known from Bangladesh (Chittagong and Sylhetdivisions) and India (Andaman Islands, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,Sikkim, Tripuraand West Bengal (Bates 2008). They roost inside hollow bamboo stems.During survey, we examined 8 specimens of from Andaman Islands of which sixwere caught by local inhabitants and 2 were mist netted across fresh water pond in Webi(North Andaman Island). The earlier record of this specimen from this zone was without anyproperinformationregarding itsproperdistributionand habitats.