10 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 3963 
~ f 
i a eo = i 

FIGURE 3. Portrait of Myotis nimbaensis (AMNH 279589, holotype). A, View of right side of upper body and 
head showing the pale ventral fur and bright orange fur on the head and the ruff around the neck; also note 
the brown color of the thumb. B, Anterior view of the left ear showing the pale orange-brown color of the 
pinna, strong distal emargination, and rounded pinna tip. C, Anterior view of right ear showing the ridges in 
the pinna and the relative length of the lanceolate tragus, which is slightly less than half the length of the 
pinna. D, Close-up view of the right side of the head showing the pale skin visible through the fur around 
eye, mouth, and on the rostrum; also note the strongly tricolored fur on the top of the head. 
ComPARISONs: External and craniodental measurements for Myotis nimbaensis and other 
congeneric African species with which it might be confused are provided in table 1. In addi- 
tion to M. nimbaensis, three other large Myotis (subgenus Chrysopteron) species with orange 
dorsal fur occur in Africa: M. tricolor, M. welwitschii, and M. morrisi. Descriptions and 
measurements of these species can be found in Hill and Morris (1971), Hill et al. (1988), 
Taylor (2000), and Monadjem et al. (2010); the latter work also includes color photographs 
and echolocation call spectrograms. 
Myotis nimbaensis can be easily distinguished from M. morrisi on the basis of size, with 
M. morrisi being smaller in all external and craniodental dimensions (table 1). The ventral 
pelage of M. morrisi is also ditferent—rather than being tricolored as in M. nimbaensis, M. 
morrisi has unicolored dull cream white ventral fur that is tinged a faint brown on the flanks 
and chin. The skull and dentition of M. morrisi is very similar to that of M. nimbaensis 
although the braincase of M. morrisi is somewhat more globular and lacks the sagittal crest 
seen in M. nimbaensis. 
