Plecotus balensis, Kruskop & Lavrenchenko, 2000

Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier, 2019, Vespertilionidae, Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 9 Bats, Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, pp. 716-981 : 866-867

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.6397752

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6580612

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/4C3D87E8-FF97-6A29-FA4C-9C1A1FF1B882

treatment provided by

Conny

scientific name

Plecotus balensis
status

 

230. View Plate 64: Vespertilionidae

Ethiopian Long-eared Bat

Plecotus balensis View in CoL

French: Oreillard d'Ethiopie / German: Bale-Langohr / Spanish: Orejudo de Etiopia

Other common names: Bale Long-eared Bat, Ethiopian Big-eared Bat

Taxonomy. Plecotus balensis Kruskop & Lavrenchenko, 2000 View in CoL ,

“Harenna Forest, Bale Mountains National Park, southern Ethiopia, 6°45’ N, 39°44’ E, 2760 m ASL.” GoogleMaps

This species is monotypic.

Distribution. Ethiopia. View Figure

Descriptive notes. Head-body 45-50 mm, tail 47-55 mm, ear 37-40 mm, hindfoot 7-8 mm, forearm 36-42 mm; weight 6-5—8: 5 g. The Ethiopian Long-eared Bat is noted for its short snout and dark chestnut-brown fur without paler tips. It is similar to the Brown Long-eared Bat ( P. auritus ) but smaller, with more inflated and slightly larger or inflated tympanic bullae (under 4- 3 mm long), slenderer tooth row, and narrower rostrum. Wings dark, and ears dark brown or blackish brown. Muzzle fairly blunt, with small preorbital and rounded supraorbital glands. Baculum is Y-shaped. Braincase medium height and very broad; rostrum quite short and narrow. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 32.

Habitat. Restricted to highlands, in humid evergreen Afro-montane forests at elevations of 2000-3000 m. The few reports available indicate areas such as upper belts of Harenna Forest in Bale Mountains National Park, or Mount Aune Yosef. Also seen foraging in more open parts of forest or at edges of clearings.

Food and Feeding. Feeds on insects caught by perch-hunting and aerial-hawking.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. No information.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. Known only from five localities and previously classified as Vulnerable, but the species is suspected to be more abundant and has been reclassified as Data Deficient. Old reports of similar species such as Christie’s Long-eared Bat ( P. christii ) may need reviewing to check for misidentifications. Very poorly known overall;likely to be affected by habitat loss due to timber extraction and agriculture expansion.

Bibliography. Benda, Kiefer et al. (2004), Juste et al. (2004), Kruskop & Lavrenchenko (2000), Lavrenchenko (2000, 2013), Lavrenchenko, Juste & Benda (2008), Lavrenchenko, Kruskop & Morozov (2004), Simmons (2005), Spitzenbergeret al. (2006).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Chiroptera

Family

Vespertilionidae

Genus

Plecotus

Loc

Plecotus balensis

Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier 2019
2019
Loc

Plecotus balensis

Kruskop & Lavrenchenko 2000
2000
GBIF Dataset (for parent article) Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF