The Arizona myotis (''Myotis occultus'') or southwestern little brown myotis is a

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

inhabiting much of the southwestern United States and central

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

as far south as the Distrito Federal.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 1909 by American zoologist

Ned Hollister Ned Hollister (November 26, 1876 – November 3, 1924) was an American biologist primarily known for studying mammals. Hollister was born in Delavan, Wisconsin to parents Kinner Newcomb Hollister (1841–1911) and Frances Margaret (Tilden) Hollist ...

. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was collected near

Needles, California Needles is a city in San Bernardino County, in the Mojave Desert region of Southern California. Situated on the western banks of the Colorado River, Needles is located near the California border with Arizona and Nevada. The city is accessible v ...

, in 1905. Its

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

"'' occultus''" is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "hidden or concealed".

Description

It is a small species with a total length of — of the total length, consists of its tail. Its fur is glossy brown with a cinnamon tint. The ventral fur and its face are paler brown.

Range and habitat

Its range includes parts of the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

and the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is found in a range of elevations from near sea level to above sea level.

Conservation

As of 2018, it is evaluated as a

least-concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

. It meets the criteria for this classification because it has a wide geographic range, its range includes

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

s, and it is not likely experiencing rapid population decline.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1831736 Mouse-eared bats Bats of the United States Bats of Mexico Mammals described in 1909 Taxa named by Ned Hollister