Madagascar sheath-tailed bat

The Madagascar sheath-tailed bat (Coleura kibomalandy) is a sac-winged bat of the family Emballonuridae found only on Madagascar. Goodman and colleagues described it as a new species in 2012, after a taxonomic split from the African sheath-tailed bat (Coleura afra): the Madagascar population showed a genetic distance of at least 6 percent from mainland African animals. The holotype was collected in Crocodile Cave in the Ankarana Reserve of northern Madagascar, and the name kibomalandy is Malagasy for white belly. It is a medium-sized member of its family, with a forearm 47 to 52 mm long and a weight of 8.4 to 12.5 g, dark brown fur on the back and throat, a whitish belly and dark wings that are partly translucent. It is known from only two protected sites in northern Madagascar, Ankarana Reserve and Namoroka National Park, both with abundant karstic limestone, at elevations of 20 to 115 m. As of 2017 the IUCN assesses it as Data Deficient.