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The Bats of Somalia and Neighbouring Areas . Frankfurt Contributions to Natural History, Volume 60. By Benedetto Lanza, Ugo Funaioli, and Marco Riccucci. Frankfurt am Main (Germany): Edition Chimaira. €78.00. 566 p.; ill.; no index. ISBN: 978-3-389973-447-8. 2015.

2017; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 92; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/690897

1539-7718

David S. Jacobs,

Poxvirus research and outbreaks

Previous articleNext article FreeZoologyThe Bats of Somalia and Neighbouring Areas. Frankfurt Contributions to Natural History, Volume 60. By Benedetto Lanza, Ugo Funaioli, and Marco Riccucci. Frankfurt am Main (Germany): Edition Chimaira. €78.00. 566 p.; ill.; no index. ISBN: 978-3-389973-447-8. 2015.David JacobsDavid JacobsBiological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa Search for more articles by this author Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South AfricaPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe Chiroptera of Africa have been covered by several continent-wide—the chiropteran volume of Mammals of Africa by J. Kingdon et al. (2013. London (UK): Bloomsbury Publishing)—and regional guides—e.g., Bats of the Sudan by K. F. Koopman (1975. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 154:355–444) and Bats of Southern and Central Africa: A Biogeographic and Taxonomic Synthesis by A. Monadjem et al. (2010. Johannesburg (South Africa): Wits University Press)—but this is the first to focus on bats in a country from the horn of Africa. This book thus fills a glaring gap in the knowledge of African bats. Despite its scope being limited to a single country, it is of fundamental importance to chiroptologists, scholars of mammalian biology, and perhaps also to ecotourists who look for the rare and wonderful.The volume is written by three authorities on bats with specialized knowledge of the bats of Somalia. It provides detailed accounts of the occurrence and taxonomy of 79 species of bats, 46 of which are known to occur in Somalia and an additional 33 that are either of unknown occurrence or from neighboring areas. In support of the taxonomy the authors provide detailed descriptions of anatomical features (e.g., skull morphology, dentition, bacula), accompanied by supporting line diagrams and color plates that allow the reliable identification of species. The strength of this component of the book is that it is based on the examination of nearly 3650 specimens, all measured by the same author. Interobserver difference does not therefore introduce an error in the measurements reported here. To facilitate the use of the book as a field guide to the bats of Somalia, Lanza et al. provide detailed descriptions of measurements taken (also supported by detailed line diagrams) and several taxonomic keys at the suborder, family, and species level. This should allow both professionals and amateurs to reliably identify the vast majority of Somalian species. As a further aid, the authors clearly identify taxonomic uncertainties in particular genera, including the Rhinolophus, Pipistrellus, and Scotophilus, in the process providing indicators of future research needed.From a general biology perspective, the authors provide very brief descriptions of each species and refer readers to literature on the biology. Similarly, little information is provided on the echolocation behavior of any of the species, but readers are referred to the secondary literature on the topic that describes the echolocation behavior for the same species elsewhere in Africa.I would have liked to have seen a more critical appraisal of the evidence for the chiropteran suborder designations used in this book. Some data on the echolocation calls of each of the echolocating species in Somalia for comparisons with the same species elsewhere in Africa would have provided an irreplaceable tool for a wide range of biologists, including taxonomists, evolutionary biologists, and ecologists.A very nice touch that I particularly appreciated is that the volume provides a detailed account of the nomenclature of each species, including the derivatio nominis as well as the common name in several foreign and local languages. The latter is surely to appeal to the local Somalians especially. I recommend this book to anyone who desires a reliable introduction to the distribution and taxonomy of Somalian bats. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 92, Number 1March 2017 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/690897 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.