Big-eared pipistrelle
The big-eared pipistrelle is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It can be found in Indonesia and Malaysia. It forages over mud flats over Peninsula Malaysia but its roosting activities are unknown. Its habitat is being threatened by deforestation for agriculture, plantations, logging and fires but how it affects this bat or if it is adaptable are unknown.
Taxonomy
The big-eared pipistrelle was described as a new species in 1840 by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. Temminck placed it in the genus Vespertilio with a binomen of Vespertilio macrotis. The holotype had been collected near Padang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In 1940, Frederick Nutter Chasen published that he considered it a subspecies of the brown pipistrelle, though it was considered a full species in 2005 by Mammal Species of the World. Hypsugo species have frequently been listed as members of the genus Pipistrellus, meaning that this species has been referred to as Pipistrellus macrotis, but the generic status of Hypsugo is now widely accepted.Based on mitochondrial DNA, specifically the regions that encode cytochrome c oxidase and cytochrome b, the big-eared pipistrelle is most closely related to Cadorna's pipistrelle.
Its species name "macrotis" comes from Ancient Greek makrós meaning "long" and oûs meaning "ear".