Taxonomic revision of Myotis mystacinus group (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in the western Palearctic

We restudied the systematic arrangement of the Myotis mystacinus group in the western part of the Palearctic region (Europe, North Africa, and Caucasus region) using morphometry of the skull and wings, and morphology of teeth and bacula in more than 650 museum specimens. In the stated region we recognized five species with several subspecies: Myotis brandtii brandtii (Eversmann, 1845), which occurs in central and north-eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Caucasus region; Myotis mystacinus mystacinus (Kuhl, 1817), which occurs in the European mixed forests from Ireland and the Balkans to the Ural Mts.; M. m. occidentalis Benda ssp. n., which occurs in the western Mediterranean; M. m. caucasicus Tsytsulina ssp. n., which occurs in the Caucasus Mts., Transcaucasia, and Armenian Highlands; and Myotis aurascens Kusjakin, 1935 stat. n., which occurs in south-eastern Europe from northern Italy, Dalmatia and the Balkans through the steppes of southern Ukraine and Ciscaucasia to Transcaucasia and the steppes of western Kazakhstan (this form probably occurs in Asia Minor as well). The Sevan Lake basin in Armenia is inhabited by an endemic form, Myotis hajastanicus Argyropulo, 1939 stat. n. In the north-eastern part of the Middle East (eastern Turkey, eastern Transcaucasia, Iran) and more to the east another form occurs, tentatively identified here as Myotis nipalensis transcaspicus Ogneff et Heptner, 1928 stat. n. The paper includes revised diagnoses of all newly defined taxa.