Pipistrellus (Pipistrellus) pygmaeus

Pipistrellus (Pipistrellus) pygmaeus (Leach 1825)

[Vespertilio] pygmaeus Leach 1825, Zool. J., 1: 559.

Type Locality: England, Devonshire, Dartmoor.

Vernacular Names: Soprano Pipistrelle.

Synonyms: Pipistrellus (Pipistrellus) mediterraneus Cabrera 1904.

Distribution: British Isles, S Scandinavia south to Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinina, Italy, Slovenia, and Greece; east to Ukaraine and W Russia (perhaps much further east); N Algeria, Tunisia, Libya (Cyrenaica only).

Conservation: IUCN 2003 – Not evaluated; not considered in IUCN / SSC Action Plan (2001).

Discussion: Subgenus Pipistrellus. Previously confused with pipistrellus, but clearly distinct; see Jones and van Parijs (1993), Barratt et al. (1995, 1997), Jones and Barratt (1999), Häussler et al. (2000), Russo and Jones (2000), Ziegler et al. (2001), and Sendor et al. (2002). Conspecific with mediterraneus, see Jones and Barratt (1999) and Häussler et al. (2000). von Helversen et al. (2000) supported use of the name mediterraneus rather than pygmaeus for this species, but this was rejected by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (2003 b), which recently placed both pipistrellus and pygmaeus on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology and designated neotypes for both species to prevent future confusion of these taxa. Some of the synonyms listed under pipistrellus may actually represent pygmaeus; they are retained under the former pending reexamination. See Jones (1997) and Mayer and Helversen (2001 b) for geographic range in Europe. The eastern limits of the range of this species are presently unknown, as some Asian and Middle Eastern populations presently attributed to Pipistrellus pipistrellus may actually represent pygmaeus.