Soprano Pipistrelle

Soprano Pipistrelle
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Suborder:	Microchiroptera
Family:	Vespertilionidae
Genus:	Pipistrellus
Species:	P. pygmaeus
Binomial name
Pipistrellus pygmaeus (Leach, 1825)

The Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) is a small bat that was only formally separated from the Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus in 1999.

The two species were first distinguished on the basis of their different-frequency echo-location calls. The Common Pipistrelle uses a call of 45 kHz, while the Soprano Pipistrelle echo-locates at 55 kHz. The two species are sometimes called the 45 kHz pipistrelle and the 55 kHz pipistrelle, or the bandit pipistrelle (common) and the brown pipistrelle (soprano). Since the two species were split, a number of other differences, in appearance, habitat and food, have also been discovered.

Echolocation

The frequencies used by this bat species for echolocation lie between 53-86 kHz, have most energy at 55 kHz and have an average duration of 5.8 ms.

External links

• ARKive Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus Photographs and videos.