Tube-nosed Bats, Murina spp., are a large group of Vespertilionid Bats found from northeastern Russia to Papua New Guinea. There are currently 40 described species in the genus about half of which have been described in the past decade, largely from genetic studies which have uncovered many cryptic species, predominantly in South and Southeast China. These Bats are insectivorous, and generally found in lowland forests, with the maximum known diversity in South China and Southeast Asia, although this may be due to a lack of sampling in more northerly parts of China.
In a paper published in the Journal of Mammalogy on 23 October 2024, Xiaoyun Wang of the Key Laboratory of Conservation and Application in Biodiversity of South China at Guangzhou University, Xuesong Han of the Shan Shui Conservation Center and the Center for Nature and Society at Peking University, Gábor Csorba of the Department of Zoology at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Yi Wu, also of the Key Laboratory of Conservation and Application in Biodiversity of South China at Guangzhou University, Huaiqing Chen also of the Center for Nature and Society at Peking University, Xiang Zhao and Zhengyi Dong, also of the Shan Shui Conservation Center, Wenhua Yu,again of the Key Laboratory of Conservation and Application in Biodiversity of South China at Guangzhou University, and Zhi Lu, again of the Center for Nature and Society at Peking University, describe a new species of Murina from a high altitude cave on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai Province in Northeast China.
On 15 March 2018, a Bat roosting in the entrance to a cave on the bank of the Batang River about 8 km from the city of Yushu and 3770 m above sealevel was disturbed, responding by making a long, high-pitched noise. At the time the significance of this was not realised, but when the significance was realised, several repeat visits were made, with the Bat being found again on 25 December 2018.
The new species is described from this single male specimen, and is named Murina yushuensis, where 'yushuensis' means 'from Yushu'. The single specimen is 30.44 mm long (small for a member of the genus). with dark skin and small round ears, lacking the notch seen in some members of the genus. The fur of the dorsal surface is about 10 mm in length, with the basal 7 mm being black in colour, and the 3 mm at the tip being a golden brown. The fur of the ventral surface is slightly shorter, which the basal black portion being about 6 mm, and the 3 mm of the tip being pale.
The Batang River is a tributary of the Yangtze running across the Tibetan Plateau, at altitudes of between 3860 m and 3530 m above sealevel. The area where Murina yushuensis was discovered has a mean annual temperature of only 2.9°C, and an annual average precipitation of 487 mm. The vegetation is largely meadows of Feathergrass with scattered shrubs and patches of Juniper woodland. This is a distinctly unusual environment for a member of a genus usually found in lowland tropical and subtropical forests. Murina yushuensis was discovered at the highest altitude any member of the genus has ever been recorded at, with the previous record being a specimen of the Little Tube-nosed But, Murina aurata, found at 2500 m. However, Wang et al. consider that while Murina yushuensis may seem exceptional, it is also potentially an indicator that other species of the genus may be living at high and intermediate altitudes, and not yet discovered due to a lack of sampling.
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