Parti-coloured bat
Vespertilio murinus
— Where the name comes from
Vespertilio is the Latin name of the bat, from vesper, “evening”: the same root as vespers and as the evening star. Murinus is “mouse-like”, from mus. It is worth noting that the Italian pipistrello comes from that very vespertilio, through a chain of popular mangling — vespertillo, vipistrello, pipistrello — that lost the evening entirely along the way.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Bats
- Habitat
- Crevices in rock and in tall buildings; hunting in open sky above cities
- Range
- From central and eastern Europe to China and Mongolia
- Size
- 4.8–6.4 cm of body, 30 cm wingspan, 12–20 g
- Diet
- Insectivore — small insects in high flight
- Lifespan
- Up to 12 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The back fur has silver tips on a dark ground: it looks frosted.
- 02
In autumn the males make display flights above city buildings.
- 03
It makes seasonal movements of over 1,400 kilometres.
— What sets it apart
In autumn the cities of central Europe fill with a song almost nobody can place. The males circle high buildings, often at the level of the upper floors, giving a social call low enough to be heard by the naked ear, repeated for hours on September and October evenings. It serves to draw females towards the crevice the male has taken. People who live high up hear it every year and nearly always take it for a bird.
