Scotophilus viridis

Scotophilus cf. viridis (Peters 1852) Twenty-five individuals were recorded from 10 sites in southern and northern Mozambique, making it the second most widespread species encountered during this study. The species has probably been overlooked in central Mozambique since it has been recorded there in the past (Smithers and Lobão Tello, 1976). Toward absolving the confusion associated with the status of this taxon, the smallest yellow-bellied species of Scotophilus in Southern Africa were assigned to S. viridis by Monadjem et al. (2010), distinct from the similar sized, but cream-bellied S. leucogaster. The recent paper by Jacobs and Barclay (2009), assigned the name S. ‘ mhlanganii ’ for their studied population of this small, yellow-bellied Scotophilus, but this most unfortunate introduction of a nomen nudum into an already confusing taxonomy has created more problems than it solves (Monadjem et al., 2010). Field measurements: FA (adult male) 46.4 ± 1.22 (44.1–48.2, 17); Bm (adult male) 19.2 ± 2.90 (16.0– 24.5, 16); FA (adult female) 47.7 ± 2.06 (45.4–51.7, 8); Bm (adult female) 26.1 ± 7.06 (17.0–33.0, 6).Published as part of Monadjem, Ara, Schoeman, M. Corrie, Reside, April, P Io, Dorothea V., Stoffberg, Samantha, Bayliss, Julian, (Woody) Cotterill, F. P. D., Curran, Michael, Kopp, Mirjam & Taylor, Peter J., 2010, A recent inventory of the bats of Mozambique with documentation of seven new species for the country, pp. 371-391 in Acta Chiropterologica 12 (2) on page 385, DOI: 10.3161/150811010X537963, http://zenodo.org/record/394458