MORPHOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF THE SOPRANO

• Main Authors: Pipistrelle (pipistrellus Pygmaeus Leach, Igor Pavlinić, Nikola Tvrtković, Draško Holcer
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Key words; Vespertilionidae; Pipistrellus; soprano pipistrelle; morphology; identification; Pipistrellus pipistrellus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.670.2038; http://www.italian-journal-of-mammalogy.it/article/download/4414/4350/

ABSTRACT- After the discovery of two different phonic types within the common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), mtDNA analysis confirmed the existence of two separate species named as common pipistrelle (P. pipistrellus) and soprano pipistrelle (P. pygmaeus). The discrimination of these two cryptic species using external characters and measures has proved to be somewhat problematic. We examined two colonies of soprano pipistrelle from Donji Miholjac, Croatia. As a result, only two characters proved to be of help for field identification: wing venation (89 % of cases) and penis morphology and colour for males. The difference in length between the 2nd and 3rd phalanxes of the 3rd finger should be discarded as diagnostic trait between P. pipistrellus and P. pygmaeus in Croatia.