Record new bats in Vietnam

During the analysis of bat specimens stored at the Hungarian Museum of Natural History and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnamese and Hungarian scientists have discovered a new species of bat for science. The new bat species belongs to the genus Myotis, the Vespertilionidae family (Mosquito bat family) and is named Myotis indochinensis Son et al., 2013 , according to the area of ​​specimen collection of the species.

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Skull of Myotis indochinensis (Photo: Nguyen Truong Son / Institute of Ecological Resources Biology)

It is known that Myotis is one of the varieties with a number of species diversity and fairly wide distribution in the world (all continents except Antarctica). So far, 14 species of Myotis have been recorded in Vietnam, including the newly described species: M. annamiticus, M. annectans, M. ater, M. chinensis, M. hasseltii, M. horsfieldii, M . indochinensis, M. laniger, M. muricola, M. phanluongi, M, pilosus, M. rosseti and M. siligorensis.

The newly discovered species is different from the known species in that: relatively long forearm, middle ear or ear canal in the same way as the nasal bat (Myotis), the skull is slightly flattened when looking at the profile, the front bar wide eye drive.

Newly distributed species are recorded in northern and central Vietnam (to Thua Thien Hue province). Further analysis of bat specimens at the Museum, the team noted that this bat species is distributed even in Laos.

The discovery of new bats is very important in assessing and preserving the diversity of bat species in Vietnam. The new bat species was published in Acta Chiropterologica, No. 15 (2), 2013.