A network of scientists discovers a new species of woolly horseshoe bat from Southeast Asia. It is described from specimens held in museum collections and from recent field surveys by a network of researchers in Southeast Asian countries in forest habitats.

The first specimen of this species was collected from Sabah in 1983 by Charles M. Francis, combined with other specimens of bats in the same group housed in museum collections world-wide provide a thorough revision.

The species is named in honour of Charles M. Francis for his great contributions to the study of Southeast Asian bats and collecting the type specimen of the species. Therefore the scientific name of the new species is ‘Rhinolophus francisi’ and the proposed English common name is ‘Francis’s Woolly Horseshoe Bat’.

Another subspecies of R. frnacisi is also described from Thailand, namely ‘Rhinolophus francisi thailandicus’ or Thailand’s Wooly Horseshoe Bat’

Currently, the new species is known from forest areas of Malaysian and Indonesian Borneo and Thailand. However, the authors of the paper suggested that the future surveys may reveal that it is actually widespread throughout Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, the tropical forest area in Southeast Asia is now rapidly decreased. Pipat Soisook, the senior author of the paper says that “The rate of the discovery of new bat species from Southeast Asia is amazingly high since the last decade. And we know how important of these bats to the ecosystem. However, the rate of forest lost in the region is also a very serious problem. Without knowledge of biodiversity, which based on accurate taxonomic studies, it would very difficult to conserve these incredible creatures from extinction”

Source: SOISOOK, P., M. STRUEBIG, S. NOERFAHMY, H. BERNARD, I. MARYANTO, S.-F. CHEN, S. J. ROSSITER, H.-C. KUO, K. DESHPANDE, P. J. J. BATES, D. SYKES, and R. P. MIGUEZ. 2015. Description of a new species of the Rhinolophus trifoliatus-group (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) from Southeast Asia. Acta Chiropterologica, 17: 21-36.