File talk:Little brown bat 0001.jpg

Identification

This is very clearly not a Little Brown Bat, but instead an Eastern Pipistrelle. Note the distinctly red forearm, dark wing membrane, and short tragus. It's a fairly textbook case as the diagnostic characters are visible. Unless someone can give some evidence to the contrary, I will be moving it to that location. --Aranae 07:59, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Little Brown Bat/Eastern Pipistrelle

I'm not a bat expert. If you'd like to use the image to illustrate the Eastern Pipistrelle instead of the Little Brown Bat, that's fine with me. The EP certainly covers the same range. Loperco 17:23, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Update

I remember now why I identified it as a Little Brown Bat, not the Eastern Pipistrelle. The bat was about the size of my fist, so I'd say too big to be the EP. Loperco 17:38, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

I moved the discussion here from my talk page. Although most Eastern Pipistrelles are smaller than the typical Little Brown Bat, the largest specimens of both are fairly comparable in size. Whitaker and Hamilton (1998) list the range on EP to be 81-89 mm in total length, whereas LBBs are: 79-93. The size of your fist sounds really big and would seem more in line with a big brown, red, or hoary bat, but it doesn't look like any of those. Three other features that suggest it is an EP: the pelage is yellowish and multi-toned, the ears are light colored, and the thumb is proportionally long (about = to 1/5 of forearm length). These characters match up with Merritt's (1987) description in Mammals of Pennsylvania. --Aranae 00:52, 19 December 2006 (UTC)