The Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) is a small bat

Bat

Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...

 that was only formally separated from the Common Pipistrelle

Common Pipistrelle

The Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus is a small pipistrelle bat whose very large range extends across most of Europe, North Africa, southwestern Asia, and possibly into Korea. It is one of the most common bat species in the British Isles....

Pipistrellus pipistrellus in 1999.

The two species were first distinguished on the basis of their different-frequency echo-location calls. The Common Pipistrelle uses a call of 45 kHz, while the Soprano Pipistrelle echo-locates at 55 kHz. The two species are sometimes called the 45 kHz pipistrelle and the 55 kHz pipistrelle, or the bandit pipistrelle (common) and the brown pipistrelle (soprano). Since the two species were split, a number of other differences, in appearance, habitat and food, have also been discovered.

Echolocation

The frequencies used by this bat species for echolocation lie between 53-86 kHz, have most energy at 55 kHz and have an average duration of 5.8 ms.

External links

• ARKive Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus Photographs and videos.