Our new study, published in Mammalia, provides the second known record and the first-ever description of a male of the rare Kon Tum Tube-nosed Bat (Murina kontumensis), originally described in 2015 from a single female specimen in Vietnam.
The new specimen was collected during a 2020 bat survey in Mang Den, in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, approximately 70 km from the species’ type locality. Morphological examination, including external, craniodental and bacular characters, together with COI DNA barcoding, confirmed its identity as M. kontumensis. The new record also extends the known elevational and ecological range of the species, suggesting that it may occur more widely in montane regions of the Central Highlands than previously thought.
The study is part of our ongoing collaborative research on the taxonomy and diversity of Vietnamese bats, involving colleagues from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Sorbonne University and the University of Pécs.
Read the open-access paper:
Hang et al. — New record and description of a male Murina kontumensis (Kon Tum Tube-nosed Bat) from Vietnam
https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2026-0109