Dubious Trumpet-eared Bat

Open encyclopedia reference

The dubious trumpet-eared bat (Phoniscus aerosus) is a species of vesper bat. It was described as a new species in 1858 by zoologist Robert Fisher Tomes. Tomes placed it in the genus Kerivoula, with a scientific name of Kerivoula aerosa. He gave the type locality as the eastern coast of South Africa, though it is now thought that the specimen's origin was mislabeled and the bat is not considered native to Africa.

Ellis Le Geyt Troughton was the first to assert that the species was likely a member of the genus Phoniscus, not Kerivoula.

Wikipedia contributors, Dubious trumpet-eared bat; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:02:50.692133+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Phoniscus aerosus (Tomes, 1858)

Name authority

(Tomes, 1858)

Common name

Dubious Trumpet-eared Bat

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Chiroptera

Family

Vespertilionidae

Genus

Phoniscus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderChiroptera Blumenbach, 1779
12. suborderYangochiroptera Koopman, 1984
13. superfamilyVespertilionoidea Gray, 1821
14. familyVespertilionidae Gray, 1821
15. subfamilyKerivoulinae Miller, 1907
16. genusPhoniscus Miller, 1905
17. speciesPhoniscus aerosus (Tomes, 1858)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Phoniscus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 407 records assigned to Vespertilionidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1157404 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4GQ7M. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.