Kuhl's pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii) is a species of vesper bat that occurs in large areas of North Africa, Southern Europe and West Asia. It lives in temperate forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, temperate grassland, rural gardens, and urban areas. It is a rare and infrequent visitor to Britain, usually only detected by sound-recordings. A specimen held at the Palestine Natural History Museum is the first record of the species to be "ensnared by a plant in the Arab world".[1]
Kuhl's pipistrelle was first named in 1817, under the name Vespertilio kuhlii, in a work by Heinrich Kuhl entitled German: Die deutschen Fledermäuse ("The bats of Germany").[2] The specific epithet was chosen by Johann Natterer, who had collected the first specimens, and commemorates Kuhl; under the rules of the ICZN, however, Kuhl himself is regarded as the authority, as the first to report the name.[3]
The population of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Sudan was formerly known as Pipistrellus deserti.[4] This taxon is now considered to be a junior synonym of Pipistrellus kuhlii.