Bobrinski's serotine (''Eptesicus bobrinskoi'') 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 can be found in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

Taxonomy

Bobrinski's serotine was described as a new species in 1935 by Alexander Petrovitch Kuzyakin (also spelled Kuzjakin). 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 1928 by S. P. Naumov in Central Kazakhstan. 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 ''bobrinskoi'' was Russian zoologist Nikolay Alekseyevich Bobrinski. As of 2006, it was the only species of bat that had been newly described from Kazakhstan. Like all other small-bodied ''Eptesicus'' species, it was once placed in the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

''Amblyotus'', whose valid status is now doubted. Genetic data shows that it is closely related to the Gobi big brown bat, and that Bobrinski's serotine may not be a separate species. Instead, it is likely a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the Gobi big brown bat.

Description

It is considered a small-bodied member of its genus. It has forearm lengths of around . Its greatest length of skull is around .

Range and habitat

For several decades after its discovery, it was believed that Bobrinski's serotine was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Kazakhstan. In 2006, it was additionally identified in Iran. It is found in desert habitats.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1834625 Eptesicus Bats of Asia Mammals described in 1935 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot