Rhinolophus hipposideros Bechstein 1800

Rhinolophus hipposideros Bechstein 1800, in: Pennant, Allgemeine Ueber. Vierfuss. Thiere, Vol. 2: 629.

Type Locality: France.

Vernacular Names: Lesser Horseshoe Bat.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Rhinolophus hipposideros subsp. hipposideros Bechstein 1800

Subspecies Rhinolophus hipposideros subsp. escalerae K. Andersen 1918

Subspecies Rhinolophus hipposideros subsp. majori K. Andersen 1918

Subspecies Rhinolophus hipposideros subsp. midas K. Andersen 1905

Subspecies Rhinolophus hipposideros subsp. minimus Heuglin 1861

Subspecies Rhinolophus hipposideros subsp. minutus Montagu 1808

Distribution: Ireland, N Europe to Iberia and Morocco, through S Europe and N Africa to Kyrgystan and Kashmir; Bulgaria; Israel and Jordan; Arabia; Sudan; Ethiopia; Djibouti. Records at some localities in N Europe (e.g., the Netherlands) apparently reflect temporary northern range extensions (Glas and Voûte, 1992 b).

Conservation: IUCN 2003 and IUCN / SSC Action Plan (2001) – Vulnerable.

Discussion: hipposideros species group. Revised by Felten et al. (1977). Reviewed by Paz (1995) and Bates and Harrison (1997); also see Harrison and Bates (1991) and Horácek et al. (2000). It is possible that minimus represents a distinct species; see Zagorodnyuk (1999).