The Alpine long-eared bat or mountain long-eared bat (''Plecotus macrobullaris'') is a species of

long-eared bat Plecotini is a tribe of bats in the family Vespertilionidae. It contains several genera found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, in Eurasia, North Africa, and North America. Several genera in this tribe are known as big-eared bats or long-eared ...

. It was originally described from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and Austria as a species intermediate between the brown long-eared bat and the grey long-eared bat in 1965. It was later described in 2002, from France and Austria, respectively. Despite its name, this species is not restricted to the Alps, being found in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere. It differs from other European long-eared bats, such as the brown long-eared bat, by its white underparts.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new subspecies in 1965 by A. Kuzjakin, who considered it a subspecies of the brown long-eared bat, ''Plecotus auritus''. Its trinomen at the time was ''Plecotus auritus macrobullaris''. Andreas Kiefer and Michael Veith described a new taxon, ''Plecotus alpinus'', in the 2001 volume of the journal ''Myotis'', but the name was made available in 2002 only. In 2002 too, another set of authors led by Friederike Spitzenberger described the same species under the name ''Plecotus microdontus''. DNA analysis showed that both "species" were synonymous, and according to the

Principle of Priority 270px, '' valid name. Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or animal. There are two asp ...

, the oldest name should apply to this species. However, in 2003, it was determined that both ''P. alpinus'' and ''P. microdontus'' were synonyms of the previous taxon described Kuzyakin in 1965, which was then raised to species status as ''Plecotus macrobullaris''. Its species name "''macrobullaris''" is from Ancient Greek "'' makrós''" meaning "long" and Latin "''

bulla Bulla (Latin, 'bubble') may refer to: Science and medicine * Bulla (dermatology), a bulla * Bulla, a focal lung pneumatosis, an air pocket in the lung * Auditory bulla, a hollow bony structure on the skull enclosing the ear * Ethmoid bulla, pa ...

''" meaning "knob-shaped," possibly referencing the auditory bulla.

Distribution

The Alpine long-eared bat has been recorded from Andorra, France and Spain in the Pyrenees; in the Alps it has been recorded from France to Slovenia, in the Dinaric Alps and through the Balkans to Greece. It is also found on Crete and

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

. In Asia is occurs in Anatolia through the Caucasus as far south as Iran and Syria. It mostly inhabits steep mountainous terrain, up to a maximum of but is known to reach sea level in some localities. In 2015, it was reported that the species contains two distinct mitochondrial lineages, which diverged from each other over 1 million years ago. However, it remains unclear whether or not the lineages are distinct in other respects, and therefore whether or not they should be considered distinct

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

. Nonetheless, two subspecies have been tentatively suggested: * ''P. m. macrobullaris'' - populations east of the Alps * ''P. m. alpinus'' - the Alps and Pyrenees

Description

The Alpine long-eared bat is a medium-sized bat, with a forearm length of approximately and a body weight of . It has pale grey fur over the body, fading to near-white on the underparts and with a dark brown face. The ears are long and a pinkish triangular pad projects downwards from the chin. There is no distinction in the size or colouration of the sexes.

Biology and behaviour

Tha bat's diet is mainly based on moths, which are captured in open areas such as grasslands and alpine meadows.Alberdi A, Garin I, Aizpurua O, Aihartza JR (2012)
The foraging ecology of the Mountain long-eared bat ''Plecotus macrobullaris'' revealed with DNA mini-barcodes.
''PLoS ONE'' 7(4): e35692. Its echolocation calls are similar to those of other long-eared bats, consisting of very faint multiharmonic signals, with the first harmonic sweeping down from 46 to 23 kHz and lasting up to 7 milliseconds. The Alpine long-eared bat seems to be flexible in its choice of roosting habitats, being reported to roost primarily in natural rock crevices in the Pyrenees, but to prefer the attics of human dwellings in the Alps. Roosts are sometimes shared with other related species, but this is unusual. While males change their roosting sites on an almost daily basis, females tend to remain in the same site for long periods, gathering together in brooding colonies of 5 to 25 individuals.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q309501 Plecotus Bats of Europe Fauna of Austria Fauna of Switzerland Mammals described in 1965