Rhinolophus hipposideros (Andre, 1797)

Benda, Petr & Mlíkovský, Jiří, 2022, Nomenclatural notes on the lesser horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus hipposideros (Mammalia: Chiroptera), Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series 191 (1), pp. 5-14 : 6-7

Author and date of description of Rhinolophus hipposideros

The name and the author and year of description of the lesser horseshoe bat was stabilised in the second half of the 19th century by Blasius (1857). Before that, the lesser horseshoe bat was variably called Rhinolophus hippocrepis ( Schrank, 1798) [which in fact is a synonym of R. ferrumequinum ( Schreber, 1774) ], R. bihastatus Geoffroy, 1813 or R. hipposideros (see e.g. Oken 1816, Desmarest 1820, Gray 1825a, 1838, 1843, Fischer 1829, Fitzinger 1832, Lesson 1834, Presl 1934, Kaup 1835, Temminck 1835, Bonaparte 1837, von Keyserling & Blasius 1839, 1840, Koch et al. 1840, Wagner 1840, 1855, Blasius 1853, Kolenati 1856, Loche 1858).

Blasius (1857: 29) attributed hipposideros to “Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. p. 1194” (= Bechstein 1801: 1194), who published it in the binomen Noctilio Hipposideros [sic]. For the next fifty years, this attribution was generally accepted (e.g., Kolenati 1860, Koch 1865, Fitzinger 1870, Peters 1871, Dobson 1876, 1878, Trouessart 1879, 1897, Anderson 1881, Doria 1887, Méhely 1900, Cabrera 1904, Schäff 1911).

Sherborn (1902: 460) traced this species name back to Bechstein (“1800” [= 1799b]), who used it in the combination Vespertilio Hipposideros (pp. 615, 629) and Noctilio Hipposideros (p. 736), and this source (“Bechstein 1800: 629”) was broadly accepted as the original description of R. hipposideros in subsequent decades (e.g., Andersen 1905, Miller 1912, Ognev 1928, Kostroň 1943, Kuzâkin 1950, Ellerman & Morrison-Scott 1951, Bogdanov 1953, Frechkop 1958, Lanza 1959, Harrison 1964, Lay 1967, Sinha 1973, Atallah 1977, Corbet 1978, DeBlase 1980, Qumsiyeh 1985, 1996, Pavlinov & Rossolimo 1987, Harrison & Bates 1991, Corbet & Hill 1992, Bates & Harrison 1997, Mendelssohn & Yom-Tov 1999, Horáček et al. 2000, Tupinier 2001, Simmons 2005, Ghosh 2008, Racey 2008, Choudhury 2016, Murariu et al. 2016).

Tupinier (2001) suggested that Bechstein published the name hipposideros in 1799. However, the book by Bechstein (1799a) mentioned by Tupinier (2001) as the work in which the name was published, is the first volume of a two-wolume set of Bechstein’s translation of Pennant’s History of Quadrupedes. Bats are included in the second volume, which bears a title-page date 1800, and was generally dated from 1800 in literature.However, Anonymous (1799a: col. 665) announced that the second volume will be published by the Michaelismesse, i.e. the Leipzig Book Fair, which started on 6 October 1799 ( Evenhuis 2014). Indeed, the relevant catalogue of books ( Anonymous 1799b: 337) listed the work as published by that time. This is good evidence that the second part of Bechstein’s work was published by 6 October 1799, and this date should be used for the purposes of zoological nomenclature. Thus, Bechstein (1799b) indeed published the name hipposideros in 1799.

Moreover, Tupinier (2001) and independently also Kožurina (2006) suggested that the species name hipposideros was first introduced by Borkhausen (1797: 85), who used it in the combination Noctilio Hipposideros . Indeed, Borkhausen (1797: 85) provided a simple description of the bat (for details see also Kožurina 2006: 43), and thus could be the author of hipposideros . The nomenclatural authority of Borkhausen (1797) over R. hipposideros has been nowadays accepted by various authors (e.g. Benda et al. 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2019, KarataŞ & Sachanowicz 2008, Anděra & Gaisler 2012, Kruskop 2012, Dieterlen et al. 2013, Lino et al. 2014, Downs et al. 2016, Burgin 2019, Akmali et al. 2022, Benjeddou et al. 2022).

However, our search of literature showed that the species name hipposideros in the meaning of the lesser horseshoe bat was also used in another work published in 1797, in a short-lived quasi-periodical Der Zoologe, published and written by Christian Carl André (1763–1831), German naturalist and educator. André (1797: 65) used the name Noctilio Hipposideros , labelling it with “mihi”, providing a detailed description of the species, and referring to four previous authors who mentioned this bat under various names ( Schreber 1774, Gmelin 1788, Bechstein 1789, Goeze 1791). (The genus name Noctilio was described by Linnaeus (1766: 88); the type species of this genus is Noctilio americanus Linnaeus, 1766: 88 [= Vespertilio leporinus Linnaeus, 1758: 32 ].)

Available data show that André (1797) was published earlier than Borkhausen (1797). André’s work was published by 19 April 1797, when it was recorded among published works presented at the Leipzig Book Fair ( Anonymous 1797a: 20; for the date see Evenhuis 2014). As regards Borkhausen’s work, we found the first records of his book in Baldinger (1797: 45) and Gerhard (1797: vi), which confirm that the work was published in 1797. Gerhard’s work was presented at the Leipzig Book Fair which started on 1 October 1797 ( Anonymous 1797b: 331, Beygang 1797: col. 742; for the date see Evenhuis 2014). This means that Borkhausen’s work was published before that date. Borkhausen (1797: xiv) signed the preface to his book in April 1797, which means that it was certainly published after March 1797, and probably after April 1797. Thus, the official publication dates for the purposes of zoological nomenclature ( ICZN 1999: Art. 21) are 19 April 1797 for André (1797), and 30 September 1797 for Borkhausen (1797), and André’s work takes priority over that by Borkhausen.

André’s (1797) priority over Borkhausen (1797) is supported by the fact that André (1797) labelled the species name with “mihi”, while Borkhausen (1797) did not. André (1797) added the word “mihi” (meaning ‘of mine’) to five names of mammal species, either created originally by him ( Sorex cunicularius [p. 25], Vespertilio Myosotis [p. 46], Noctilio Hipposideros ) or mentioned in a new (particularised) taxonomic meaning upon the previously considered ( Vespertilio murinus [p. 49], Noctilio ferrum equinum [p. 62]).

André’s (1797) work is less known, so we provide here his detailed description of the species ( André 1797: 65–66): “Die kleine Hufeisennase, mit einer hufeisenähnlichen Nase, nur zwey Säugwarzen auf der Brust, hellaschgrauem Rücken, und schmutzigweissem Bauche. // Diese kleinere Fledermaus, bey welcher die Länge des Körpers 1 Zoll 8 Linien, die des Schwanzes 1 Zoll beträgt, und die Flügel nur 9 Zoll klastern, unterscheidet sich eben so gut als Art von der vorhergehenden, wie das kleine von dem grossen Mäuseohr, die kleine von der grossen Speckmaus, das kleine von dem grossen Wiesel; denn man findet beide zu allen Jahreszeiten in der Grösse und Farbe, und als Männchen und Weibchen verschieden, und letzteres hat bey dieser kleinen Art standhaft nur zwey Säugwarzen auf der Brust, da jenes noch zwey am Bauche hat. Uebrigens kommt diese kleinere Art, die horizontale Lage der hintern häutigen Nasentheile etwa noch ausgenommen, in allen Stücken mit der grösseren überein. Sie liebt eben den Aufenthalt, wird häufig in jener Gesellschaft angetroffen, pflanzt sich eben so fort, doch allezeit mit ihres Gleichen und nicht mit der grösseren Art gepaart.”

Thus, the author of the species name hipposideros , as published in the binomen Noctilio hipposideros , is André (1797). The assignations of the authorship of this species name to Borkhausen (1797) or Bechstein (1799b [“1800”], 1801) are erroneous.