Myotis mystacinus

<i>Myotis mystacinus</i> <p> Gomsiqe e Epërme (41°59.015 <i>ʹ</i> N, 19°48.480 <i>ʹ</i> E, 344 m a.s.l.), 5 August 2003, 1♂ juv. netted over a river in a rocky gorge.</p> <p> Due to the discovery of <i>M. alcathoe</i> (von Helversen et al. 2001; Dietz et al. 2009) and the lack of any morphological details allowing for species identification, the only previous record of <i>M. mystacinus</i> (Uhrin et al. 1996) may have been either <i>M. mystacinus</i> sensu stricto or <i>M. alcathoe</i>.</p>Published as part of <i>Sachanowicz, Konrad, Ciechanowski, Mateusz, Rachwald, Alek & Piskorski, Michał, 2015, Overview of bat species reported in Albania with the first country records for eight species, pp. 513-521 in Journal of Natural History 50</i> on page 518, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1059962, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/3985566">http://zenodo.org/record/3985566</a&gt

Plecotus austriacus

<i>Plecotus austriacus</i> <p>Pishkash II (location same as above), 28 September 2005, 1♂ ad. netted at the entrance of a small cave in a limestone gorge. The morphological identification of this species was confirmed by genetic analysis (A. Kiefer, pers. comm.).</p> <p> (<i>Continued</i>) No previous record of <i>Pl</i>. <i>austriacus</i> (Lamani 1970) has been sufficiently documented to confirm the identification of this species (Sachanowicz and Ciechanowski 2006) and exclude a similar, newly recognized species, <i>Pl</i>. <i>macrobullaris</i> (Spitzenberger et al. 2006; Dietz et al. 2009).</p>Published as part of <i>Sachanowicz, Konrad, Ciechanowski, Mateusz, Rachwald, Alek & Piskorski, Michał, 2015, Overview of bat species reported in Albania with the first country records for eight species, pp. 513-521 in Journal of Natural History 50</i> on pages 515-516, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1059962, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/3985566">http://zenodo.org/record/3985566</a&gt

Myotis brandtii

<i>Myotis brandtii</i> <p> Qafa e Malit I (42°05.565 <i>ʹ</i> N, 20°06.846 <i>ʹ</i> E, 928 m a.s.l.), 8 August 2003, 1 post-lactating ♀ ad. netted over a road in mountain mixed forest with old beech and black pine trees.</p> <p> This locality is one of the southernmost in the western Balkans. <i>Myotis brandtii</i> was previously recorded at two sites in Montenegro (Benda 2004) and, recently, also near the border with Albania in the north of Greece (Papadatou et al. 2011).</p>Published as part of <i>Sachanowicz, Konrad, Ciechanowski, Mateusz, Rachwald, Alek & Piskorski, Michał, 2015, Overview of bat species reported in Albania with the first country records for eight species, pp. 513-521 in Journal of Natural History 50</i> on page 518, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1059962, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/3985566">http://zenodo.org/record/3985566</a&gt

Nyctalus lasiopterus

Nyctalus lasiopterus Lura National Park (41°43.039 ʹ N, 20°11.908 ʹ E, 1430 m a.s.l.), 28 June 2011, 1 sexually active ♂ ad. netted over a road in an old mountain beech forest. This record fills the large gap in the distribution of this rarely recorded species in the western Balkans, where it was previously recorded only in Croatia (Kovač et al. 2011) and Greece (Hanák et al. 2001). As N. lasiopterus depends strongly on old hollow trees for roosting (Estók et al. 2007), it may be restricted to difficult-to-access mountain locations in Albania due to the heavy deforestation of lowland areas (Habili et al. 1997).Published as part of Sachanowicz, Konrad, Ciechanowski, Mateusz, Rachwald, Alek & Piskorski, Michał, 2015, Overview of bat species reported in Albania with the first country records for eight species, pp. 513-521 in Journal of Natural History 50 on pages 518-519, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1059962, http://zenodo.org/record/398556

Pipistrellus pipistrellus pipistrellus

Pipistrellus pipistrellus Gomsiqe e Epërme (location same as above), 6 August 2003, 1 non-lactating ♀ ad. netted over a river in a rocky gorge. Syri i Kalter I (39°55.440 ʹ N, 20°11.564 ʹ E, 175 m a.s.l.), 23 April 2004, time-expanded echolocation calls of commuting individuals recorded over a karstic spring surrounded by a riparian woodland with oriental plane. The frequency of maximum energy was 43.2–44.5 (mean 44.2, n = 7), and the probability of correct species identification by iBatsID software was 0.93–0.99 (mean 0.97). Due to the separation of P. pipistrellus and P. pygmaeus (Barratt et al. 1997; Dietz et al. 2009) and the lack of any characters allowing for species identification, the only previous record (Uhrin et al. 1996) has to be assigned to P. pipistrellus sensu lato (Sachanowicz et al. 2006). Although scarcely known until 2003 (21 species and unidentified representatives of three species complexes), the bat fauna of Albania is presently adequately surveyed with 32 recorded species. Our research has confirmed that Albania is one of the European countries with the highest bat species richness. In the geographic Balkans, where 35 bat species are known (Dietz and Kiefer 2014), a greater or equal number of species has only been recorded in Bulgaria with 33 species if an acoustic record of Myotis dasycneme (Boie, 1825) over the Danube river is included (Benda et al. 2003; Mayer et al. 2007; Niermann et al. 2007) and continental Greece with 32 species (Hanák et al. 2001; Mayer et al. 2007). For two of the rarest European bats, R. mehelyi and N. lasiopterus, but also for M. brandtii, Pl. kolombatovici and B. barbastellus, we greatly extended their known geographic ranges in the south of Europe (Dietz et al. 2009). The previous record of M. nattereri in Albania (Chytil and Vlašín 1994) was most probably of this species, which is the only representative of the M. nattereri complex confirmed in the Balkans so far (Salicini et al. 2013). Of the two Balkan species not recorded in Albania, Eptesicus nilssonii is only known from single localities in Bulgaria (Benda et al. 2003) and Croatia (Pavlinić and Tvrtković 2003) whereas the known range of M. aurascens (sensu Mayer et al. 2007) covers only a small area of northeast Bulgaria and extends to Romania, Ukraine and Russia (Dietz and Kiefer 2014).Published as part of Sachanowicz, Konrad, Ciechanowski, Mateusz, Rachwald, Alek & Piskorski, Michał, 2015, Overview of bat species reported in Albania with the first country records for eight species, pp. 513-521 in Journal of Natural History 50 on page 519, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1059962, http://zenodo.org/record/398556

Plecotus kolombatovici Dulic 1980

<i>Plecotus kolombatovici</i> <p>Pishkash II (location same as above), 28 September 2005, 1 sexually active ♂ ad. netted at the entrance of a small cave in a limestone gorge. The morphological identification of this species was confirmed by genetic analysis (A. Kiefer, pers. comm.).</p> <p> The two records of bats from the genus <i>Plecotus</i> (Lamani 1970) could not be assigned to any particular species because of the lack of a detailed description and measurements. For the supposed <i>Pl. kolombatovici</i> record from the Treni Cave, at the Micro Prespa Lake in Albania (24–25 September 2012), no evidence has been provided to support the species identification and exclusion of other <i>Plecotus</i> species (Scheffler et al. 2013). <i>Plecotus kolombatovici</i> has one of the smallest geographic ranges among the European bats; it has only been confirmed in Greece and along the Adriatic coast of Croatia (Đulić 1980; Spitzenberger et al. 2006). The supposed records from Bosnia and Herzegovina are based on external and cranial measurements (Đulić 1980; Červený and Kryštufek 1988) and apparently require confirmation with genetic methods. This new Albanian record indicates a wider occurrence of this species in the southwestern Balkans and its syntopic presence with <i>Pl. austriacus</i>.</p>Published as part of <i>Sachanowicz, Konrad, Ciechanowski, Mateusz, Rachwald, Alek & Piskorski, Michał, 2015, Overview of bat species reported in Albania with the first country records for eight species, pp. 513-521 in Journal of Natural History 50</i> on page 518, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1059962, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/3985566">http://zenodo.org/record/3985566</a&gt

Trophic relationship between Salix flowers, Orthosia moths and the western barbastelle

Abstract We present the results of a study which describes the relationship between the western barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus a highly specialised moth predator, and its prey—moths of the genus Orthosia, another selective animal known to converge around a dominant producer of pollen and nectar in early spring—willow trees Salix sp. In order to describe this trophic relationship, we conducted acoustic recordings at five paired sites (willow/control tree) in proximity to known barbastelle hibernation sites (Natura 2000: PLH080003 and PLH200014) beginning in mid-March 2022 after the first willow blossom sighting. Our study confirms a relationship between willow trees and barbastelles during early spring, as their activity around them was significantly higher than control sites. We also explore the activity of barbastelles over time, finding that activity levels around willows significantly decrease from the night of the first recorded bat, while the abundance of non-moth specialist bats remains consistent. Short-time importance (directly after hibernation) of willows for a moth specialist bat is probably due to other species blossom, attracting alternative prey, and in consequence—the bat. This newly described relationship should influence current conservation measures aimed at barbastelles