Hi Everyone
Because of the rain we had a couple of weeks ago, we are continuing to trap over the weekend. The traps are quite a long way from the house now, it takes well over 30 mins to get to the first one, so we are getting back home quite late these days. The traps set were KL0758  , KL0760, KL0762, KL0764, KL0766, KL0768, KL0770, KL0772, KL0774, KL0776, KL0778, KL0780, although we had to close KL0762 due to the presence of large ants.

 Last night it seemed like it is was the male Hipposideros diadema that were out to party (along with the Kerivoula intermedia again)! We also had another female Hipposideros larvatus, but it was especially nice to get a male Megaderma spasma, which is one of two Malaysian species belonging to the family Megadermatidae (the False Vampire bats — not vampire bats at all of course!).

At first glance, Megaderma looks quite a bit like Nycteris tragata, but when you look closely, there are alot of differences. First of all, Megaderma has a section of skin connecting the two ears, which Nycteris doesn’t have. Second, there is only a very small tail in Megaderma, that is barely visible, but Nycteris has a long tail that goes all the way to the end of the tail membrane and ends in Y-shaped piece of cartilage. Megaderma has a distinct noseleaf, whereas Nycteris has a slit up the length of the muzzle with flaps of skin either side. Also, if you remember where the tragus is (in the ear) you will see it is very large in Megaderma and actually is made up of two lobes (we describe it as a bifid tragus), but it is short and rounded in Nycteris.  So once you know to look for those things it’s pretty easy to tell them apart.

The fur is long, fluffy and is pale grey to dull brown in adults. Juveniles are uniformly grey in colour. The forearm ranges from around 53-64 mm and weight 18-34 g. It is primarily a forest inhabitant and can be found roosting caves and occasionally in large tree hollows, culverts, tunnels, crevices of rock-boulders, and abandoned outbuildings. They like to roost in small groups of 2-5 individuals. Diet includes large insects like grasshoppers, cockroaches, dung beetles and moths, and occasionally small vertebrates such as frogs and mice.

Megaderma spasma, one of the two Malaysian species belonging to the family Megadermatidae

A small group of Megaderma spasma in a roost (Photo K. Fletcher)

Here are the data

Dr Kingston