2021 SIMMONS ET AL.: NEW SPECIES OF MYOTIS 3 

FIGURE 1. Relief map with satellite imagery overlaid showing the capture locations of the Myotis nimbaensis 
holotype (red triangle: captured 26 January 2018; red circle: collected 2 February 2018) and other sites where 
this species was likely detected with acoustic monitoring at entrances of underground sites (yellow squares), 
‘The mining concession footprint is shown as the unshaded area within the Nimba Mountains Strict Nature 
Reserve and Mount Nimba World Heritage Site (identical boundaries) that are overlaid by light green shading. 
Dominant habitat types are visible as different textures from the satellite imagery showing how gallery forests 
occur along steep canyons surrounded by savanna at higher elevations. Roads and trails in the mining conces- 
sion are also visible as light brown features, Location of the Nimba Mountains in relation to Guinea, Liberia 
and Cote d'Ivoire is shown in the inset. 
assessment for the Nimba Iron Ore Project. As part of this work, we captured two individuals 
of a spectacular dichromatic orange and black species clearly belonging to Myotis but that did 
not fit the diagnosis of any previously described species in the genus. We analyzed morphologi- 
cal, morphometric, echolocation, and molecular data, and herein describe these individuals as 
representing a new species of Myotis (subgenus Chrysopteron). 
Genetic diversity and species limits of bats in the monophyletic subgenus Chrysopteron (= 
“Ethiopian Clade” of Stadelmann et al., 2004, and “Clade V” of Ruedi et al., 2013, 2015) were 
recently reviewed by Csorba et al. (2014) and Patterson et al. (2019). Chrysopteron as defined 
by Csorba et al. (2014) is the only traditional subgenus of Myotis currently validated by molecu- 
lar systematics (Csorba et al., 2014; Patterson et al., 2019; Morales et al., 2019). This taxon, 
which is diagnosed morphologically by reddish or yellowish dorsal fur with a cottony or wooly 
texture, is distributed from Africa and Madagascar to the Mediterranean region, across India 
and southern Asia to China, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia (Csorba 
et al., 2014). Myotis (Chrysopteron) currently contains 14 species: Myotis anjouanensis, M. bar- 
telsi, M. bocagii, M. emarginatus, M. formosus, M. goudoti, M. hermani, M. morrisi, M. rufoni- 
ger, M. rufopictus, M. scotti, M. tricolor, M. weberi, and M. welwitschii (Csorba et al., 2014; 
Patterson et al., 2019). 
