Latidens
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| iSalim Ali's fruit bat | ||||||||||||||||
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| Latidens salimalii (Thomas, 1923) |
Salim Ali's fruit bat (Latidens salimalii) is a rare megabat and a monotypic species in the genus Latidens . It is medium sized and lacks and external tail. The head is covered by blackish brown fur and the wing is light brown in colour. It was collected by Angus Hutton, a planter and naturalist in the High wavy mountains in the Anamalais in south India in 1948. It was originally misidentified as a short-nosed fruit bat but later identified by Kitty Thonglongya as a new species and was named after the famous Indian ornithologist Salim Ali in 1972.
[edit] Description
No external tail. Fifteen palatal ridges. Rostrum long and narrow. Palate very long especially postdental portion. Post orbital foramina absent. Incisors 1 pair and peg like, cheek teeth brad. Ears oval with rounded tips. Patagium without hair. First premolar very small and slightly exceeds the incisors in the crown area.
Body length 10 cm, hindfeet 0.8-1.5 cm, forearm 6.6 cm.
[edit] Range
The first descripton of the bat was from a single specimen collected at an altitude of 750 meters in the Western Ghats rainforest of the High Wavy Mountains, South India.
