Rüppell's bat (''Vansonia rueppellii''), also known as Rüppell'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 familie ...

found in Africa and Asian republics such as

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. It is the only member of the genus ''Vansonia''. It is found in dry and moist

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

, subtropical or tropical dry

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

, and hot deserts.

Taxonomy

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 language, Italian word , meaning "bat" (from Latin "bird of evening, bat"). The size of the ge ...

'', as its most

basal Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''. Science * Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure * Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...

member, but phylogenetic evidence supports it forming the separate genus ''Vansonia''. Senegalese specimens of ''Vansonia rueppellii'' can be confidently assigned to ''V. r. senegalensis'', which is distributed from Algeria to Senegal. After testing the influence of phylogeny, ''V. rueppellii'' was found to be basal to the ''

''/'' Nyctalus'' clade.

Description

The species is long while its tail is long and its forearm is no more than . It weighs only .

Habitat

It is not unusual to find them in crevices, rocks and buildings of various kinds.

References

Vesper bats Mammals described in 1829 Taxa named by Johann Baptist Fischer Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Bats of Asia Bats of Africa Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Vespertilionidae-stub