Kuhl's pipistrelle | |
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Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Chiroptera |
Family: | Vespertilionidae |
Genus: | Pipistrellus |
Species: | P. kuhlii
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Binomial name | |
Pipistrellus kuhlii
Kuhl, 1817
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Global range of P. kuhlii (red) | |
Synonyms | |
Vespertilio kuhlii Kuhl, 1817 |
Kuhl's pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii) is a species of vesper bat that occurs in large areas of North Africa, Southern Europe and West Asia. It lives in temperate forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, temperate grassland, rural gardens, and urban areas. [1] It is a rare and infrequent visitor to Britain, usually only detected by sound-recordings.[ citation needed] A specimen held at the Palestine Natural History Museum is the first record of the species to be "ensnared by a plant in the Arab world". [2]
Kuhl's pipistrelle was first named in 1817, under the name Vespertilio kuhlii, in a work by Heinrich Kuhl entitled Die deutschen Fledermäuse ("The bats of Germany"). [3] The specific epithet was chosen by Johann Natterer, who had collected the first specimens, and commemorates Kuhl; under the rules of the ICZN, however, Kuhl himself is regarded as the authority, as the first to report the name. [4]
The population of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Sudan was formerly known as Pipistrellus deserti. [5] This taxon is now considered to be a junior synonym of Pipistrellus kuhlii. [6]