NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Brown Long-eared Bat
Plecotus auritus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
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Open encyclopedia reference
The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus) is a small Eurasian insectivorous bat. It has distinctive ears, long and with a distinctive fold. It is extremely similar to the much rarer grey long-eared bat, which was only validated as a distinct species in the 1960s. An adult brown long-eared bat has a body length of 4.5–4.8 cm, a tail of 4.1–4.6 cm, and a forearm length of 4–4.2 cm. The ears are 3.3–3.9 cm in length, and readily distinguish the long-eared bats from most other bat species. They are relatively slow flyers compared to other bat species.
Wikipedia contributors, Brown long-eared bat; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:35:03.002425+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Plecotus auritus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Common name
- Brown Long-eared Bat
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Family
- Vespertilionidae
- Genus
- Plecotus
- 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.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderChiroptera Blumenbach, 1779
- suborderYangochiroptera Koopman, 1984
- superfamilyVespertilionoidea Gray, 1821
- familyVespertilionidae Gray, 1821
- subfamilyVespertilioninae Gray, 1821
- tribePlecotini Gray, 1866
- genusPlecotus E. Geoffroy, 1818
- speciesPlecotus auritus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Plecotus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Himalayan Long-eared BatPlecotus homochrous Hodgson, 1847 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Alpine Long-eared BatPlecotus macrobullaris Kuzyakin, 1965 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Ognev's Long-eared BatPlecotus ognevi Kishida, 1927 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Japanese Long-eared BatPlecotus sacrimontis G. M. Allen, 1908 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Strelkov's Long-eared BatPlecotus strelkovi Spitzenberger, 2006 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Formosan Long-eared BatPlecotus taivanus Yoshiyuki, 1991 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Gray Long-eared BatPlecotus austriacus (J. Fischer, 1829) | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Canary Long-eared BatPlecotus teneriffae Barrett-Hamilton, 1907 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Gaisler's Big-eared BatPlecotus gaisleri Benda, Kiefer, Hanak & Veith, 2004 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Bale Long-eared BatPlecotus balensis Kruskop & Lavrenchenko, 2000 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Balkan Long-eared BatPlecotus kolombatovici Dulic, 1980 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Kozlov's Long-eared BatPlecotus kozlovi Bobrinskii, 1926 | VespertilionidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
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.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=632133 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:4K2Z9. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.