Alpine Long-eared Bat

The Alpine long-eared bat or mountain long-eared bat (Plecotus macrobullaris) is a species of long-eared bat. It was originally described from Switzerland and Austria as a species intermediate between the brown long-eared bat and the grey long-eared bat in 1965. It was later described in 2002, from France and Austria, respectively. Despite its name, this species is not restricted to the Alps, being found in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere. It differs from other European long-eared bats, such as the brown long-eared bat, by its white underparts. == Taxonomy and etymology == It was described as a new subspecies in 1965 by A. Kuzjakin, who considered it a subspecies of the brown long-eared bat, Plecotus auritus. Its trinomen at the time was Plecotus auritus macrobullaris. Andreas Kiefer and Michael Veith described a new taxon, Plecotus alpinus, in the 2001 volume of the journal Myotis, but the name was made available in 2002 only. In 2002 too, another set of authors led by Friederike Spitzenberger described the same species under the name Plecotus microdontus. DNA analysis showed that both "species" were synonymous, and according to the Principle of Priority, the oldest name should apply to this species. However, in 2003…