Anchieta's serotine (''Neoromicia anchietae''), formerly known as Anchieta's pipistrelle, is a species of

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

. It is found in

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

and

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. The species inhabits

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

habitats.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 1900 by

Antero Frederico de Seabra Antero Frederico de Seabra (sometimes Anthero; 20 August 1874 – 15 November 1952) was a Portuguese naturalist. He was founder and president of the Society of Biological Sciences. He particularly specialized in entomology, publishing a series of ...

. Seabra gave it the binomial of ''Vesperugo anchieta''. The specific epithet ''anchieta'' was emended to ''anchietae'', which is the current specific epithet. Seabra made an error in his original spelling and corrected it in a later publication in 1900. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

had been collected in Cahata,

. The

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

for the

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

"''anchietae''" is

José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta (variations José d'Anchieta, José Anchieta, José de Anchieta - b. October 9, 1832 in Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal, d. September 14, 1897 in Caconda, Portuguese Angola) was a 19th-century Portuguese explorer a ...

, a Portuguese zoologist. It was formerly classified in the genus ''

Pipistrellus ''Pipistrellus'' is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae and subfamily Vespertilioninae. The name of the genus is derived from the Italian word , meaning "bat" (from Latin "bird of evening, bat"). The size of the genus has been co ...

'', but phylogenetic evidence supports it belonging in the genus ''

Neoromicia ''Neoromicia'' is a genus of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It contains the following species: * Anchieta's serotine (''Neoromicia anchietae'') * Kirindy serotine (''Neoromicia bemainty'') * Yellow serotine (''Neoromicia flavescen ...

''.

Description

It has a head and body length of . Its ear is long; its tail is long; its forearm is long.

Range and habitat

It is found in several countries in Africa, including

, and

. It has also been documented in

, though observations are rare. It is found in association with riparian habitats, as well as coastal and scrub forests. It has been documented in the

Bushveld The Bushveld (from Afrikaans: ''bosveld'', Afrikaans: ''bos'' 'bush' and ) is a Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. The ecoregion straddles the Tropic of Capricorn ...

ecoregion, often near open water.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q125867017, from2=Q1830108 Neoromicia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Bats of Africa Mammals described in 1900 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN