Miniopterus natalensis (A. Smith, 1833)

Fig. 33 E–F

Vespertilio Natalensis A. Smith, 1833: 59 .

* Miniopterus natalensis arenarius Heller, 1912: 2 .

* Miniopterus schreibersi vicinior J.A. Allen, 1917: 450 .

* Miniopterus schreibersi villiersi Aellen, 1956: 890 .

Originally described as a subspecies of breyeri, vicinior was moved to M. natalensis by Sanborn (1936: 110). However, most later authors assigned the form to M. schreibersi, but we follow Simmons (2005: 521) and Monadjem et al. (2013: 138), who included it back in M. natalensis . On the other hand, Thorn et al. (2009: 49) included vicinior specimens from Uganda in M. fraterculus .

Aellen (1956) described villiersi as a subspecies of M. inflatus . Most recent authors, though, include it in M. schreibersii, but Fahr et al. (2006: 173), Decher et al. (2010: 170) and Schaer et al. (2013: 17416, suppl. 1) consider it a valid species, restricted to western Africa. Decher et al. (2016: 274, 276) are a bit dubious in using M. inflatus villiersi in their systematic review and M. villiersi in their discussion sections. Furthermore, Anciaux de Faveaux (1978a: 479) mentioned that he originally assigned all of his material to either Miniopterus inflatus villiersi or Miniopterus natalensis, but that – according to Felten and Aellen – actually almost all of his specimens belonged to Miniopterus schreibersi natalensis . Based on this, we consider the DRC villiersi specimens to represent M. natalensis .

See also Miniopterus fraterculus Thomas & Schwann, 1906 above.