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Tschuli Myotis | Myotis tschuliensis
Myotis tschuliensis | Myotis tschuliensis
Myotis tschuliensis is the species of the Natterer's Bat complex in a belt from Crimea via the Caucasus and northern Iran to Turkmenistan. Kuzyakin described it in 1935 as a subspecies of Natterer's Bat, M. nattereri tschuliensis, from the Kopet Dag in Turkmenistan. Genetic work on the Natterer's-type bats of the Middle East and the Caucasus led the Mammal Diversity Database to list it as a species; the handbook still treated it as a subspecies in 2019. Very little has been published on this form on its own.
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Tracks
No roosts, colonies or other signs have been described for this species on its own in the sources consulted. There are hardly any external signs, and within the complex the call cannot be assigned to species.
Identification
A separate description with external measurements cannot be found in the sources consulted; the handbook includes it under Natterer's Bat and gives no separate measurements. What applies to the Natterer's Bat complex as a whole: a medium-sized Myotis with a fringe of stiff hairs along the rear edge of the tail membrane, an S-shaped calcar, long ears with folds on the outer edge, a pointed tragus longer than half the ear, a bare pink face, brown to grey upperparts and pale grey to whitish underparts. Kruskop and Solovyeva found differences in skull and tooth measurements, but these cannot be used in the field. Call data for this species on its own have not been published.
Similar species
The closest species are Natterer's Bat (M. nattereri in the strict sense), which according to Uvizl and Benda occurs in the east only in western Anatolia and on Samos, M. hoveli in the Levant, southern and eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq, and M. schaubi in Iran and Armenia. According to the handbook M. hoveli and M. tschuliensis appear to be related to M. schaubi. According to Uvizl and Benda the species live in allopatry or parapatry, so locality is the first clue; no external character to separate them has been described. Using DNA from museum specimens, Kruskop and Solovyeva found that bats from the Caucasus and from Turkmenistan belong to the same genetic lineage, but that the two populations differ in skull and tooth measurements about as much as M. tschuliensis differs from Natterer's Bat; in their view the status of the Caucasian population needs further study. Where the species borders on Natterer's Bat or M. hoveli, for example in Turkey, DNA is required, preferably nuclear DNA, because mitochondrial DNA has been exchanged between lineages within the complex.
Habitat
No data on the habitat of this form on its own have been published in the sources consulted. The range includes the mountain forests of Crimea and the Caucasus and the mountains of northern Iran and the Kopet Dag; Natterer's Bat in the strict sense lives mainly in forest, but whether this also applies to this species has not been studied.
Where the animal is most at home, classified with EUNIS — the European standard for habitats.
Distribution
A belt from Crimea via the Caucasus and Transcaucasia and northern Iran to Turkmenistan. Countries: Ukraine (Crimea), Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Turkmenistan. The boundaries with the ranges of Natterer's Bat and M. hoveli in Turkey are incompletely known. Because older records from this region are filed under M. nattereri, the range has to be derived from genetically examined bats.
Way of life
No data on diet, foraging, reproduction, hibernation or longevity of this species on its own have been published in the sources consulted. The species of the Natterer's Bat complex take their prey largely from leaves and the ground, but this has not been studied for this form.
Where and when to look
A bat with a fringe of stiff hairs along the tail membrane in Crimea, the Caucasus or northern Iran is this species under the current classification. Because of the small number of records, every documented observation, with locality and if possible DNA, adds to knowledge of the range.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated (NE) on the global Red List; the species has not yet been assessed separately since the split. Data on numbers, trend and threats are lacking. The species is listed in the Red Data Book of Turkmenistan.
Scientific name
Myotis tschuliensis | Kuzyakin, 1935
Kuzyakin described the species in 1935 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. Myotis is Greek, from mys, genitive myos, 'mouse', and ous, genitive ōtos, 'ear': 'mouse-ear'. tschuliensis means 'of Chuli', the gorge in the Kopet Dag near Ashgabat in Turkmenistan from which Kuzyakin described the animal. The specimen the first description was based on came from Turkmenistan, Kopet Dag.