Account
What the sources say about this taxon, as written.
activity · 
Plazi
Activity patterns. Little Free-tailed Bats are nocturnal. They emerge soon after dusk and forage throughout the night, with two activity peaks at dusk and dawn. Their natural roosts include crevices in rocks, trees and the crowns of palm trees, but they are very commonly recorded in the roofs of buildings in urban and rural areas. Echolocation calls are FM with narrow bandwidth, low frequency (typically peak frequency of 25 kHz), and long duration (c.10 milliseconds). Echolocation call structure and frequency vary geographically but some of the variation may be due to the use of different bat-detector systems.
discussion · Plazi
The taxonomic limits of Chaerephon pumilus remain uncertain, and many named forms are currently synonymized within it. Until recently, populations from Madagascar and the western Seychelles were included, but recent molecular studies have proposed they be split as distinct species, under the names leucogaster ( Madagascar , Comoro and Pemba islands, and parts of the African mainland) and pusillus ( Seychelles ) . Furthermore, eastern Madagascan populations formerly attributed to C. pumilus have been described as another distinct species, C. atsinanana . Given the wide variability in morphology and echolocation-call structure among mainland African populations of C. pumilus , it has been suggested that several cryptic species remain to be described. While distinct molecular clades of African mainland C. pumilus can be distinguished, these do not correspond exactly with groups defined based on morphological or acoustic evidence. Molecular patterns revealed in the broader species complex (including pumilus sensu stricto , leucogaster , and pusillus ) are partly suggestive of a “ring species” with different forms occurring down the eastern coast of Africa and in the western Indian Ocean islands including Madagascar . Monotypic.