SHORT NOTES First recordings of the soprano pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmaeus

• Main Authors: Géraldine Kapfer, Marc Van De Sijpe, Ben Van Der Wijden, Wout Willems, Bob V, Bart Mulkens
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Pipistrellus pipistrellus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.627.9207; http://www.naturalsciences.be/institute/associations/rbzs_website/bjz/back/pdf/BJZ 137(1)/Volume 137(1), pp. 111-113.pdf

Microchiropteran bats species can be discriminated according to morphometrical, behavioural and genetical features (1) (2). In addition, as bat species often emit dis-tinct echolocation calls, the analysis of signal characteris-tics is a good identification tool and can even lead researchers to the discrimination of sibling species. In 1993, JONES & VAN PARIJS (3) showed a bimodal distribu-tion in the echolocation calls of the common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Schreber, 1774) with individuals emitting calls with maximum energy peak around 45kHz and others around 55kHz. Subsequent works have shown that the two phonic types also showed differences in diet, habitat use (4) and social calls (5) (6). Genetic analysis finally separated the two phonic types into different cryp-tic species P. pipistrellus and P. pygmaeus (Leach, 1825), the common name given to the latter species being soprano pipistrelle (7). The distribution of P. pygmaeus is poorly known because of the recent distinction between the two phonic types. To date, it seems that soprano pipis-