Thomas's big-eared brown bat (''Histiotus laephotis'') 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 South America.

Taxonomy and etymology

Thomas's big-eared brown bat was described as a new species in 1916 by British zoologist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appoin ...

. Thomas described the species based on specimens held by the

Turin Museum of Natural History The Turin Museum of Natural History (Italian: ''Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino'' or MRSN) was established in 1978 to house the natural history collections of the University of Turin and other collections of natural history, origin ...

that had been collected by "Dr. Borelli", likely Dr. Alfredo Borelli, who furnished many biological specimens during this time from Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

had been collected in Caiza, Bolivia, which is located in the

Potosí Department Potosí (; Aymara language, Aymara: ''Putusi''; qu, P'utuqsi) is a Departments of Bolivia, department in southwestern Bolivia. It comprises 118,218 km2 with 823,517 inhabitants (2012 census). The capital is the city of Potosí. It is most ...

of Southern Bolivia. Of the

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

"''laephotis''", Thomas was not clear on its meaning, though he remarked that it " ada similar meaning" to the name ''histiotus'', which means "sail ear" (from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

" ἱστός" meaning "mast" + " οὖς" meaning "ear"). A hypothesis for the etymology of ''laephotis'' is that it comes from Greek " λαιός" meaning "awkward" and " φως" meaning "light," possibly referring to an awkward flight in the daylight. The validity of Thomas's big-eared brown bat as a species has been disputed. In the past, it has been regarded as a subspecies of the big-eared brown bat, ''H. macrotis''. More recently, it has been considered a subspecies of the small big-eared brown bat, ''H. montanus''. At present, several sources consider it a valid species.

Description

Individuals weight approximately . Its ears are very long relative to other members of its genus, at long. The ears are wide. Its fur is dark brown, with the tips of individual hairs lighter brown. Its ears and flight membranes are grayish in color. Its forearm is long. From head to tail, it is long. Its tail is ; its tragus is long. It can be differentiated from the similar small big-eared brown bat (''Histiotus montanus'') by its yellowish fur, pale ears, and longer forearm.

Range and habitat

Its range includes

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. In March 2006, it was documented in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

for the first time. A paper published in 2015 cited its first ever documentation in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Conservation

As of 2019, it was evaluated as

near-threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1822785 Mammals described in 1916 Bats of South America Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Histiotus