Systematic Position and Taxonomy of Pipistrellus Deserti (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)
Mammalia 2015; 79(4): 419–438 Petr Benda*, Tommy Andriollo and Manuel Ruedi Systematic position and taxonomy of Pipistrellus deserti (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) Abstract: Pipistrellus deserti is a small, pale-coloured bat DOI 10.1515/mammalia-2014-0024 occurring in the most arid parts of the Sahara, in Morocco, Received February 26, 2014; accepted August 22, 2014; previously published online September 17, 2014 Algeria, Libya, Egypt, and the Sudan, and marginally also in sub-Saharan Africa. Although most authors consider P. deserti as a full species, others regard it as a subspe- cies, or even as a junior synonym of Pipistrellus kuhlii. We Introduction analysed the topotype material of P. deserti from Libya using both morphologic and molecular characters, and The Desert pipistrelle, Pipistrellus deserti, was described compared them with samples from other Saharan coun- by Thomas (1902: 4) as “a small buff-coloured desert ally tries and with P. kuhlii from around the Mediterranean. of P. kuhli” on the basis of a male obtained from Murzuq, The Libyan samples of deserti are morphologically very Fezzan, south-western Libya. Thomas differentiated similar to other populations from arid parts of North his P. deserti from P. kuhlii practically only on the basis Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan), but differ mark- of smaller size (e.g., a forearm length 29.5 mm or great- edly in the size of most skull dimensions when compared est skull length 11.6 mm). For a long time, Thomas’ (1902) to P. kuhlii sampled in more mesic areas. However, phy- report remained the only authenticated record of P.
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