Gould's Long-eared Bat

About the Gould's Long-eared Bat

Gould's long-eared bat (Nyctophilus gouldi) is a microbat found in southern regions of Australia. It occurs in eastern Australia, from Queensland to Victoria, and in a smaller isolated range in the south-west of Western Australia.

The first description of the species was published by Robert Tomes in 1858. The type locality was Moreton Bay in Queensland. This specimen was provided by John Gould, a second specimen examined by Tomes was noted as from the same locality, and the third, also from Gould's collection, was obtained at Bathurst.

The status as a species has varied in treatments of larger long-eared Australian bats, the described taxon being sometimes submerged or synonymised to other taxa in the genus. The complexes of Nyctophilus species were published as often tentative or contradictory arrangements for taxa that were poorly known, and previous classifications had seen this species separated or assigned to N. bifax or N. daedalus. The taxon was one of several to be reconsidered in a review of Nyctophilini species (Parnaby, 2009), and their alliance with the dubious name Nyctophilus timoriensis, these included N. sherrini, N. major and N. howensis. The species... Wikipedia →