Mammals of the WorldJapanese Pipistrelle
Alionoctula abramus
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Family
- Vespertilionidae
- Genus
- Alionoctula
- IUCN status
- LC (as Pipistrellus abramus)
- Distribution
- Russia|North Korea|South Korea|Japan|China|Taiwan|Myanmar|Laos|Vietnam|India
- Realm
- Palearctic|Indomalaya
Other names: Japanese House Bat
About this species
- Size
- Body 3.6–4.8cm; tail 2.9–4.0cm; forearm 3.2–3.6cm
- Diet
- Beetles, caddisflies, flies, hymenopterans, moths and true bugs
- Habitat
- Roofs and ceiling spaces of older buildings
- Range
- East Asia, including the Korean Peninsula
The Japanese pipistrelle, also called the Japanese house bat, is a small vesper bat. Adults have a body length of 3.6–4.8cm, a tail of 2.9–4.0cm and a forearm length of 3.2–3.6cm. The general species account identifies ceiling spaces and the interiors of roofs in older buildings as preferred roosts, bringing this bat into close association with human structures (Wikipedia, general species account).
This insect-eating bat takes beetles, caddisflies, true flies, hymenopterans, moths and true bugs. Its documented East Asian distribution runs from China and Taiwan through the Ussuri region and the Korean Peninsula to Japan (Wikipedia, general species account). Mammal Diversity Database records independently include both North and South Korea within the species' distribution (Mammal Diversity Database v2.4). The opened sources do not identify a reliable Korean viewing locality, so none is proposed here.
Description: Wildlife of Korea guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)