Mouse-eared bat

Mouse-eared bat
The mouse-eared bats or myotises are a diverse and widespread genus (Myotis) of bats within the family Vespertilionidae. The noun "myotis" itself is a Neo-Latin construction, from the Greek "muós (meaning "mouse") and "oûs" (meaning ear), literally translating to "mouse-eared".
Relationships
Myotis has historically been included in the subfamily Vespertilioninae, but was classified in its own subfamily, Myotinae, by Nancy Simmons in 1998. In her 2005 classification in Mammal Species of the World, Simmons listed the genera Cistugo and Lasionycteris in the Myotinae in addition to Myotis itself. However, molecular data indicate that Cistugo is distantly related to all other Vespertilionidae, so it was reclassified into its own family, the Cistugidae, and that Lasionycteris belongs in the Vespertilioninae. The genus Submyotodon has since been added to the subfamily, making it and Myotis its only members.
Appearance and behavior
Their ears are normally longer than they are wide, with a long and lance-shaped tragus, hence their English and zoological names. The species within this genus vary in size from very large to very small for vesper bats, with a single pair of mammary glands.
Mouse-eared bats are generally insectivores. M. vivesi, and several members of the trawling bat ecomorph Leuconoe, have relatively large feet with long toes, and take small fish from the water surface (they also take insects).
Longevity
Myotis species are remarkably long-lived for their size; in 2018, researchers revealed that a longitudinal study appears to indicate that Myotis telomeres do not shrink with age, and that telomerase does not appear to be present in the Myotis metabolism. 13 species of Myotis bats live longer than 20 years and 4 species live longer than 30 years. The longest-living species of Myotis, and longest-living bat in general, is thought to be the Siberian bat (M. sibiricus); one individual discovered in 2005 was found to be over 41 years old at the time.
Species
Traditionally, Myotis was divided into three large subgenera—Leuconoe, Myotis, and Selysius. However, molecular data indicate that these subgenera are not natural groups, but instead unnatural assemblages of convergently similar species. Instead, Myotis species largely fall in two main clades, one containing Old World and the other New World species. The ITIS presently divides it into three subgenera: Chrysopteron (containing most reddish-colored Old World species), Myotis (containing almost all other Old World species), and Pizonyx (containing all New World species and the Eurasian Myotis brandtii and Myotis sibiricus, which are more closely related to New World species than to other Old World species). The Asian species Myotis latirostris falls outside the clade formed by these main groups, and has since been reclassified into a separate genus, Submyotodon, alongside several others.
Myotis is a highly species-rich genus, and the classification of many species remains unsettled. The taxonomy below is based on that of the ITIS in 2021. Some differences in taxonomy from the 2005 third edition of Mammal Species of the World are indicated in footnotes.
Subgenus Chrysopteron:
Myotis anjouanensis (Dorst, 1960) - Anjouan myotis
Myotis bartelsii (Jentink, 1910) - Bartels's myotis
Myotis bocagii (Peters, 1870) - rufous mouse-eared bat
Myotis dieteri (Happold, 2005) - Kock's mouse-eared bat
Myotis emarginatus (E. Geoffroy, 1806) - Geoffroy's bat
Myotis formosus (Hodgson, 1835) - Hodgson's bat, copper-winged bat
Myotis goudotii (A. Smith, 1834) - Malagasy mouse-eared bat
Myotis hermani Thomas, 1923 - Herman's myotis
Myotis morrisi Hill, 1971 - Morris's bat
Myotis nimbaensis (Simmons et al., 2021) - Nimba mountain bat
Myotis rufoniger (Tomes, 1858) - reddish-black myotis
Myotis rufopictus (Waterhouse, 1845) - orange-fingered myotis
Myotis scotti Thomas, 1927 - Scott's mouse-eared bat
Myotis tricolor (Temminck, 1832) - Cape hairy bat, little brown bat, Temminck's mouse-eared bat, Cape myotis, tricoloured mouse-eared bat, Cape hairy myotis, Temminck's hairy bat, three-coloured bat
Myotis weberi (Jentink, 1890) - Weber's myotis
Myotis welwitschii (Gray, 1866) - Welwitsch's bat, Welwitsch's mouse-eared bat, Welwitsch's myotis
Subgenus Myotis:
Myotis adversus (Horsfield, 1824) - large-footed bat, large-footed mouse-eared bat, large-footed myotis
Myotis aelleni (Baud, 1979) - southern myotis (disputed species)
Myotis alcathoe (von Helversen and Heller, 2001) - Alcathoe bat
Myotis altarium (Thomas, 1911) - Szechwan myotis
Myotis alticraniatus Osgood, 1932 - Indochinese whiskered myotis
Myotis ancricola Kruskop, Borisenko, Dudorova, & Artyushin, 2018 - valley myotis
Myotis annamiticus (Kruskop and Tsytsulina, 2001) - Annamit myotis
Myotis annatessae Kruskop & Borisenko, 2013 - Anna Tess's myotis
Myotis annectans (Dobson, 1871) - hairy-faced bat
Myotis ater (Peters, 1866) - Peters's myotis, small black myotis
Myotis badius Tiunov, Kruskop, & Feng Jiang, 2011 - chestnut myotis
Myotis bechsteinii (Kuhl, 1817) - Bechstein's bat
Myotis blythii (Tomes, 1857) - lesser mouse-eared bat
Myotis bombinus (Thomas, 1906) - Far Eastern myotis, bombinus bat
Myotis borneoensis Hill & Francis, 1984 - Bornean whiskered myotis
Myotis browni E. H. Taylor, 1934 - Brown's whiskered myotis
Myotis bucharensis (Kuzyakin, 1950) - Bocharic myotis, Bokhara whiskered bat
Myotis capaccinii (Bonaparte, 1837) - long-fingered bat
Myotis chinensis (Tomes, 1857) - large myotis
Myotis crypticus Ruedi, Ibáñez, Salicini, Juste & Puechmaille, 2019 - cryptic myotis
Myotis csorbai (Topál, 1997) - Csorba's mouse-eared bat
Myotis dasycneme (Boie, 1825) - pond bat
Myotis daubentonii (Kuhl, 1817) - Daubenton's bat
Myotis davidii (Peters, 1869) - David's myotis
Myotis escalerai Cabrera, 1904 - Escalera's bat
Myotis federatus Thomas, 1916 - Malaysian whiskered myotis
Myotis fimbriatus (Peters, 1871) - fringed long-footed myotis
Myotis frater G.M. Allen, 1923 - fraternal myotis
Myotis gomantongensis Francis and Hill, 1998 - Gomantong myotis
Myotis hajastanicus Argyropulo, 1939 - Armenian whiskered bat, Hajastan myotis, Armenian myotis (disputed species)
Myotis hasseltii (Temminck, 1840) - lesser large-footed bat
Myotis horsfieldii (Temminck, 1840) - Horsfield's bat
Myotis hoveli Harrison, 1964 - Hovel's myotis
Myotis hyrcanicus Benda et al., 2012 - Hyrcanian myotis
Myotis ikonnikovi Ognev, 1912 - Ikonnikov's bat
Myotis indochinensis Son et al., 2013 - Indochinese myotis
Myotis insularum (Dobson, 1878) - insular myotis
Myotis laniger Peters, 1871 - Chinese water myotis
Myotis longicaudatus Ognev, 1927 - long-tailed myotis
Myotis longipes (Dobson, 1873) - Kashmir cave bat
Myotis macrodactylus (Temminck, 1840) - eastern long-fingered bat, big-footed myotis
Myotis macropus (Gould, 1854) - southern myotis, large-footed myotis
Myotis macrotarsus (Waterhouse, 1845) - pallid large-footed myotis, Philippine large-footed myotis
Myotis melanorhinus Merriam, 1890 - dark-nosed small-footed myotis (disputed species)
Myotis moluccarum (Thomas, 1915) - Maluku myotis, Arafura large-footed bat
Myotis montivagus (Dobson, 1874) - Burmese whiskered bat
Myotis muricola (Gray, 1846) - wall-roosting mouse-eared bat, Nepalese whiskered myotis
Myotis myotis (Borkhausen, 1797) - greater mouse-eared bat
Myotis mystacinus (Kuhl, 1817) - whiskered bat
Myotis nattereri (Kuhl, 1817) - Natterer's bat
Myotis nipalensis Dobson, 1871 - Nepal myotis
Myotis pequinius Thomas, 1908 - Beijing mouse-eared bat, Peking myotis
Myotis petax Hollister, 1912 - eastern water bat, Sakhalin bat
Myotis peytoni Wroughton & Ryley, 1913 - Peyton's myotis
Myotis phanluongi Borisenko, Kruskop and Ivanova, 2008 - Phan Luong's myotis
Myotis pilosus Peters, 1869 - Rickett's big-footed bat
Myotis pruinosus Yoshiyuki, 1971 - frosted myotis
Myotis punicus Felten, Spitzenberger and Storch, 1977 - Felten's myotis
Myotis ridleyi Thomas, 1898 - Ridley's bat
Myotis rosseti (Oey, 1951) - thick-thumbed myotis
Myotis schaubi Kormos, 1934 - Schaub's myotis
Myotis secundus Ruedi, Csorba, Lin, & Chou , 2015 - long-toed myotis
Myotis sicarius Thomas, 1915 - Mandelli's mouse-eared bat
Myotis siligorensis (Horsfield, 1855) - Himalayan whiskered bat
Myotis soror Ruedi, Csorba, Lin, & Chou, 2015 - reddish myotis
Myotis sowerbyi Howell, 1926 - Sowerby's whiskered myotis
Myotis stalkeri Thomas, 1910 - Kei myotis
Myotis tschuliensis Kuzyakin, 1935 - Tschuli myotis
Myotis yanbarensis Maeda and Matsumara, 1998 - Yanbaru whiskered bat
Myotis zenatius Ibáñez, Juste, Salicini, Puechmaille & Ruedi, 2019 - Zenati myotis
Subgenus Pizonyx:
Myotis albescens (E. Geoffroy, 1806) - silver-tipped myotis
Myotis armiensis Carrión-Bonilla & Cook, 2020 - Armién's myotis
Myotis atacamensis (Lataste, 1892) - Atacama myotis
Myotis attenboroughi Moratelli et al., 2017 - Sir David Attenborough's myotis
Myotis auriculus (Baker and Stains, 1955) - southwestern myotis
Myotis austroriparius (Rhoads, 1897) - southeastern myotis
Myotis bakeri Moratelli, Novaes, Bonilla, & D. E. Wilson, 2019 - Baker's myotis
Myotis brandtii (Eversmann, 1845) - Brandt's bat
Myotis californicus (Audubon and Bachman, 1842) - California myotis
Myotis caucensis Allen, 1914 - Colombian black myotis
Myotis chiloensis (Waterhouse, 1840) - Chilean myotis
Myotis ciliolabrum (Merriam, 1886) - western small-footed bat, western small-footed myotis
Myotis clydejonesi Moratelli, D. E. Wilson, A. L. Gardner, Fisher, & Gutierrez, 2016 - Clyde Jones's myotis
Myotis cobanensis (Goodwin, 1955) - Guatemalan myotis
Myotis diminutus Moratelli & Wilson, 2011 - diminutive myotis
Myotis dinellii Thomas, 1902 - Dinelli's myotis
Myotis dominicensis Miller, 1902 - Dominican myotis
Myotis elegans Hall, 1962 - elegant myotis
Myotis evotis (H. Allen, 1864) - long-eared myotis
Myotis findleyi Bogan, 1978 - Findley's myotis
Myotis fortidens Miller and Allen, 1928 - cinnamon myotis
Myotis grisescens A.H. Howell, 1909 - gray bat
Myotis handleyi Moratelli, A. L. Gardner, J. A. Oliveira, & D. E. Wilson, 2013 - Handley's myotis
Myotis izecksohni Moratelli, Peracchi, Dias & de Oliveira, 2011 - Izecksohn's myotis
Myotis keaysi J.A. Allen, 1914 - hairy-legged myotis
Myotis keenii (Merriam, 1895) - Keen's myotis
Myotis larensis LaVal, 1973 - Lara myotis
Myotis lavali Moratelli, Peracchi, Dias, & Oliveira, 2011 - LaVal's Myotis
Myotis leibii (Audubon and Bachman, 1842) - eastern small-footed bat
Myotis levis (I. Geoffroy, 1824) - yellowish myotis
Myotis lucifugus (Le Conte, 1831) - little brown bat, little brown myotis
Myotis martiniquensis LaVal, 1973 - Schwartz's myotis
Myotis midastactus Moratelli & Wilson, 2014 - golden myotis
Myotis nesopolus Miller, 1900 - Curacao myotis
Myotis nigricans (Schinz, 1821) - black myotis
Myotis nyctor LaVal & Schwartz, 1974 - Barbados myotis
Myotis occultus Hollister, 1909 - Arizona myotis
Myotis oxyotus (Peters, 1867) - montane myotis
Myotis peninsularis Miller, 1898 - peninsular myotis
Myotis pilosatibialis LaVal, 1973 - northern hairy-legged myotis
Myotis planiceps Baker, 1955 - flat-headed myotis
Myotis riparius Handley, 1960 - riparian myotis
Myotis ruber (E. Geoffroy, 1806) - red myotis
Myotis septentrionalis (Trouessart, 1897) - northern long-eared bat, northern myotis
Myotis sibiricus (Kastschenko, 1905) - Siberian bat or Siberian whiskered myotis
Myotis simus Thomas, 1901 - velvety myotis
Myotis sodalis Miller and Allen, 1928 - Indiana bat
Myotis thysanodes Miller, 1897 - fringed myotis
Myotis velifer (J.A. Allen, 1890) - cave myotis
Myotis vivesi Menegaux, 1901 - fish-eating bat, fish-eating myotis
Myotis volans (H. Allen, 1866) - long-legged myotis
Myotis yumanensis (H. Allen, 1864) - Yuma myotis
Unclassified & dubious species:
Myotis australis (Dobson, 1878) - Australian myotis (disputed species)
Myotis oreias (Temminck, 1840) - Singapore whiskered bat
See also
Bat adenovirus TJM
Notes
References
Literature cited
Borisenko, A.V., Kruskop, S.V. and Ivanova, N.V. 2008. A new mouse-eared bat (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from Vietnam. Russian Journal of Theriology 7(2):57–69.
Han, N., Zhang, J., Reardon, T., Lin, L., Zhang, J. and Zhang, S. 2010. Revalidation of Myotis taiwanensis Ärnbäck-Christie-Linde 1908 and its molecular relationship with M. adversus (Horsfield 1824) (Vespertilionidae, Chiroptera) (subscription required). Acta Chiropterologica 12(2):449–456.*Happold, M. 2005. A new species of Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from central Africa. Acta Chiropterologica 7(1):9–21.
Ibáñez, C., García-Mudarra, J.L., Ruedi, M., Stadelmann, B. and Juste, J. 2006. The Iberian contribution to cryptic diversity in European bats. Acta Chiropterologica 8(2):277–297.
Jiang, T., Sun, K., Chou, C., Zhang, Z. and Feng, J. 2010. First record of Myotis flavus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from mainland China and a reassessment of its taxonomic status. Zootaxa 2414:41–51.
Lack, J.B., Roehrs, Z.P., Stanley, C.E., Ruedi, M. and Van Den Bussche, R.A. 2010. Molecular phylogenetics of Myotis indicate familial-level divergence for the genus Cistugo (Chiroptera) (subscription required). Journal of Mammalogy 91(4):976–992.
Matveev, V.A., Kruskop, S.V. and Kramerov, D.A. 2005. Revalidation of Myotis petax Hollister, 1912 and its new status in connection with M. daubentonii (Kuhl, 1817) (Vespertilionidae, Chiroptera). Acta Chiropterologica 7(1):23–37.
Mayer, F., Dietz, C. and Kiefer, A. 2007. Molecular species identification boosts bat diversity. Frontiers in Zoology 4(1):239–255.
Roehrs, Z.P., Lack, J.B. and Van Den Bussche, R.A. 2010. Tribal phylogenetic relationships within Vespertilioninae (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data (subscription required). Journal of Mammalogy 91(5):1073–1092.
Simmons, N.B. 2005. Order Chiroptera. Pp. 312–529 in Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3rd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp.
Stadelmann, B., Lin, L.-K., Kunz, T.H. and Ruedi, M. 2007. Molecular phylogeny of New World Myotis (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA genes (subscription required). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43(1):32–48.
Tsytsulina, K. 2004. On the taxonomical status of Myotis abei Yoshikura, 1944 (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae). Zoological Science 21:963–966.
Simmons, Nancy B.; Flanders, J.; Bakwo Fils, E. M.; Parker, Guy; Suter, Jamison D.; Bamba, Seinan; Keita, Mamady Kobele; Morales, Ariadna E.; Frick, Winifred F. 2021. A new dichromatic species of Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the Nimba Mountains, Guinea (American Museum novitates, no. 3963) American Museum Novitates. ISSN 0003-0082.
External links
Myotis at Animal Diversity Web
Mouse-eared bats
Bat genera