Bory's White Bat - Boryptera alba

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This bat's taxonomy remains unclear. It cannot be associated with any known species (Cheke and Hume 2008).

Almost nothing is known about this species' characteristics; only that it was small and coloured white (Bory de St Vincent 1804; Cheke and Hume 2008). Bory de Saint-Vincent (1804) implied that it was smaller than the surviving Grey Tomb Bat (Taphozous mauritianus) (Cheke 2009).

It is unknown what this species ate. However, most microbats feed on insects (Wikipedia contributors 2011).

This bat was probably not active during the day, as Bory de St Vincent (1804) reported that it find refuge during the day between the petioles of the leaves of latan palms (Cheke and Hume 2008).

Close associations of bats with specific trees are known elsewhere; the Honduran white bat (Ectophylla alba), a small all-white bat, roosts only in Heliconia leaves (Cheke and Hume 2008). Another example is the Madagascar Sucker-footed Bat (Myzopoda aurita) which apparently require Travellers' Palms (Ravenala madagascariensis) to roost in (Toussaint 1972; Cheke and Hume 2008).

Image: Honduran White Bats (Ectophylla alba) in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica. This species is probably similar (although unrelated) in lifestyle and its white colour to the Bory's White Bat. It is photographed by 'Leyo' in November 2006. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Switzerland license. A full resolution version can be found at Wikimedia Commons.

This species is only recorded from Réunion (Cheke and Hume 2008), a French island in the Indian Ocean, which is part of the Mascarene Islands. It was possibly dependent to Red Latan Palms (Latania lontaroides), which is endangered (Johnson 1998), as Bory de St Vincent (1804) reported that it was roosting between the petioles of latan palm leaves.

Image: map showing the location of the island of Réunion, the former range of the Bory's White Bat. Created by Peter Maas for The Sixth Extinction website. This image has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence. This applies worldwide.

Bory de St Vincent (1804) reported seeing in 1801 a tiny all-white bat roosting in Red Latan Palms (Latania lontaroides) in Réunion. While describing latan palms near Saint-Joseph, he added: "little white bats, of which I was unable to obtain a single individual, find refuge during the day between the petioles of the leaves" (Cheke and Hume 2008). Later, at Etang Salé he "was unable to see any of the little all-white bats which come seeking asylum against the day's heat in the torn leaves of these trees" (Cheke and Hume 2008).

Image: A Red Latan Palm (Latania lontaroides) from the Conservatoire botanique de Mascarin in Réunion. Photographed by 'Bouba' in November 2004. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

In 2009, Michel Barataud, an amateur biologist and expert on bats, and his team could not find any evidence of the continued presence of the Bory's White Bat (Dupuis 2009). This (hypothetical) species is most likely extinct.

The extinction causes of this species are unknown.

This species is only known from historical records. There are no museum specimens. (Turvey 2009)

Because the taxonomy of this species is unknown, it is impossible to determine its relatives. Réunion was home to three other microbats: the Grey Tomb Bat (Taphozous mauritianus), the Mascarene Free-tailed Bat (Mormopterus acetabulosus) and the Lesser Yellow Bat or Pale House Bat (Scotophilus borbonicus) (Cheke and Hume 2008). The Grey Tomb Bat and the Mascarene Free-tailed Bat both survive on Réunion (as well on the island of Mauritius), but the Pale House Bat may be extinct as well (Andriafidison et al. 2008; Cheke and Hume 2008).

The Sixth Extinction Forum - Bory's White Bat Boryptera alba (free registration required)

Andriafidison, D, Cardiff, S.G., Goodman, S.M., Hutson, A.M., Jenkins, R.K.B., Kofoky, A.F., Racey, P.A., Ranivo, J., Ratrimomanarivo, F.H. & Razafimanahaka, H.J. (2008). Scotophilus borbonicus. In: IUCN (2010). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 08 January 2011.

Bory de Saint-Vincent, Jean-Baptiste G.M. (1804). Voyage dans les quatre principales îles des mers d’Afrique, fait par ordre du gouvernement pendant les années neuf et dix de la République (1801 et 1802). Paris: F.Buisson. 2 vols. + 'atlas' [plates]. [Reprinted 1980 - Marseille: Lafitte Reprints.

Brial, P. (2001). Une espèce inconnue de microchiroptère observée par Bory de Saint-Vincent à l'île de la Réunion en 1801. Bull. Soc. Geog. Réunion 1:5.

Cheke, A.S. (2009). Data sources for 18th century French encyclopaedists - what they used and omitted: evidence of data lost and ignored from the Mascarene Islands, Indian Ocean. Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series Vol. 177 (9): 91-117; published on 28 April 2009. ISSN 1802-6842 (print), 1802-6850 (electronic).

Cheke, A, and Hume, J, (2008). Lost Land of the Dodo: An ecological history of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues. T & A D Poyser, London.

Dupuis, A. (2009). L'écoute des chauves-souris réunionnaises. Le Journal de l'île, 3 avril 2009, p. 18.

Johnson, D. (1998). Latania lontaroides. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 08 January 2011.

Toussaint, A. (1972). Histoire des Iles Mascareignes. Paris: Berger-Levrault. 351pp.

Turvey S.T. (2009). Holocene mammal extinctions. In: Turvey, S.T.  (editor) (2009). Holocene extinctions. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Wikipedia contributors (2011), 'Microbat', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 January 2011, 03:50 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microbat&oldid=406215526> [accessed 8 January 2011].