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The soft ticks of the genus Reticulinasus Schulze, 1941 (family Argasidae Koch, 1844) are ectoparasites of the fruit bats of the Old World (Pteropodidae). Reticulinasus salahi (Hoogstraal, 1953) is the only representative of this genus that occurs in the western part of the Palaearctic. This unusual distribution reflects the distributon range of its primary host, Rousettus aegyptiacus (Geoffroy, 1810). In this contribution, we present a revised review of records of this tick that were made in two periods, 1951–1966 (records from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Spain) and 2005–2019 (Cyprus, Iran, Oman), and additionally, we present notes, re-determinations, new records, and summary of hosts of this tick. Besides the primary host, the revised list of hosts comprises two bats (Taphozous perforatus Geoffroy, 1818, Otonycteris hemprichii Peters, 1859) and the human (Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758). We also tried to identify pathogens in specimens of this tick collected from R. aegyptiacus in Oman. The DNA of the Mouse herpesvirus strain 68 (MHV-68), of two bacteria, Borellia burgdorferii sensu lato, and Ehrlichia sp. almost identical (98%) with Candidatus Ehrlichia shimanensis was detected in several larvae specimens.

The automotive industry is experiencing an era of technological innovations from conventional passenger cars, trucks to agricultural machinery. Digital side mirror technology is one of the latest topics in the field of advanced driver assistance systems which is developing rapidly. This study evaluates the applicability of digital side mirror technology in the car interior, based on drivers’ feedbacks. The research was conducted in the form of a questionnaire to determine the drivers’ reactions and affinity to new technology, based on personal experience gained in simulated traffic and also in real traffic situations. The data obtained from this research were then subjected to Pearson’s Chi-squared test to evaluate the drivers’ dependence and comfort with the digital side mirror technology. Subsequently, mainly statistically significant dependencies in the preferences of individual drivers were sought due to their personal and anthropometric parameters. The results published in this study can be used mainly to understand the process by which drivers form an opinion on new technology which may be key to their further stance on the technology and may also affect the commercial success of digital mirror technology during their involvement in serial production.

Benda, Petr, Uvizl, Marek, Vallo, Peter, Reiter, Antonín, Uhrin, Marcel (2022): A revision of the Rhinolophus hipposideros group (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) with definition of an additional species from the Middle East. Acta Chiropterologica 24 (2): 269-298, DOI: 10.3161/15081109ACC2022.24.2.001

Specimens of Equus przewalskii in the collection of the National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic (Perissodactyla: Equidae). A complete list of 50 specimens of the Przewalski’s horse (Equus przewalskii) housed in the collection of the National Museum, Prague, is presented. It consists of two complete skeletons, twelve partial skeletons, 20 skins (two of them mounted), and 40 skulls.

The oldest nomenclatural history of the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) is summarised and discussed. Our search of literature showed that the author of the species name Rhinolophus hipposideros is André (1797); in the work Der Zoologe, oder Compendiöse Bibliothek des wissenswürdigsten aus der Thiergeschichte und allgemeinen Naturkunde published by 19 April 1797, André (1797: 65) used the name Noctilio Hipposideros and labelled it with “mihi”. André’s (1797) work takes priority over Deutsche Fauna oder kurzgefaßte Naturgeschichte der Thiere Deutschlands by Borkhausen (1797) to which the creation of the name Noctilio Hipposideros has been attributed; the publication date of the latter work for the purposes of zoological nomenclature is 30 September 1797. Revised dating is provided for the second volume of Bechstein’s translation of Pennant’s History of Quadrupeds to which the description of Rhinolophus hipposideros was also formerly assigned: Thomas Pennant’s allgemeine Uebersicht der vierfüßigen Thiere. It is shown to be published by 6 October 1799, although the book bears a title-page date 1800.

A list of 1,673 specimens of bats belonging to 36 species, seven genera, and five families of the superfamily Rhinolophoidea, housed in the collection of the National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic, is presented in a systematic review.

The Geoffroy’s bat, Myotis emarginatus, is the only species distributed in the Palaearctic belonging to the African clade of the genus Myotis. It occurs extensively across several ecologic zones of Europe, north-western Africa, and western and central Asia, and hence it was considered to be a polytypic species. Only one subspecies was reported from Europe and North Africa, up to four subspecies were recognised in Asia. However, the validity of particular taxa as well as the systematic positions of different populations remained ambiguous. Here we present a revision of the intraspecific phylogenetic structure of M. emarginatus based on combination of the available results of a molecular genetic analysis with the results of a thorough morphologic examination of an extensive specimen set from almost the whole range of its distribution. The previously described geographic variability in the mitochondrial markers demonstrated grouping of haplotypes of M. emarginatus into three main lineages that occur in (1) the Mediterranean Basin (including central Europe, the Maghreb and Levant), (2) Oman and south-eastern Iran, and (3) northern Iran and West Turkestan. The morphologic comparison uncovered the existence of four main, geographically exclusive morphotypes in M. emarginatus, concerning the body, skull and tooth sizes, and skull and tooth shapes: (1) rather small bats with short rostrum and high braincase, occurring in Europe and north-western Africa; (2) rather medium-sized bats with long rostrum and short braincase from the Levant including Cyprus; (3) large bats with wide and long rostrum from the south-eastern parts of the Middle East, including Oman, south-eastern Iran and eastern Afghanistan, and (4) large bats with narrow and short rostrum, occurring in Crimea, the Caucasus region, and West Turkestan. As a synthesis of the results of both approaches, we suggest to recognise three subspecies within the Myotis emarginatus species rank – M. e. emarginatus (Geoffroy, 1806) distributed in the Mediterranean, central and western Europe, north-western Africa, and in the Levant; M. e. desertorum (Dobson, 1875) in the south-eastern Middle East, including southern Iran, Oman, and Afghanistan; and M. e. turcomanicus (Bobrinskoj, 1925) in the Caucasus region, Crimea, Transcaucasia, and West Turkestan.

A complete skeleton of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) from an animal ca. 13–14 m long is here reported as a new acquisition to the collection of mammals of the National Museum in Prague. This large new specimen was transferred to Prague museum from the Zoological museum of Senckenberg Natural History Collection Dresden, Germany, where a space enough was not available in the collection depositary rooms for its storage (the skull was stored outdoors, the rest of the skeleton in a taxidermy workshop). The skeleton originates from a stranded individual of the sperm whale discovered (along with two others) on the North Sea shore at Friedrichskoog (Holstein, Germany) on 15 January 2002. Selected measurements of the skull of this sperm whale are as follows: condylobasal length of skull 418 cm, orbital width of skull 196 cm, basal width of rostrum 144 cm, length of left mandible 374 cm, mandible height at the ramus mandibulae 58 cm. An annotated review of museum specimens of the great whales (= baleen whales and the sperm whale) in collections in the Czech Republic and a detailed description of the sperm whale specimens in the National Museum are added.

A list of 139 specimens of bats belonging to 32 species of eight families originating from Zambia, housed in the collection of the National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic, is presented in a systematical review. The species lists are complemented by comments on distribution and morphometry data. The specimens represent 73 new records (species vs. locality) of bats from Zambia. The collection contains two species new for the Zambian fauna, Afropipistrellus grandidieri and Neoromicia somalica. Two species, Rhinolophus sakejiensis and Chaerephon bivittatus are documented for the second time from Zambia, the former bat for the first time after the species description at all. The record localities of Epomophorus labiatus, Rhinolophus mossambicus, and Neoromicia somalica shift margins of the whole known distribution ranges of these bats. In Epomophorus dobsonii, Nyctinomus aegyptiacus, Glauconycteris variegata, Pipistrellus rusticus, Scotophilus leucogaster, and S. viridis, the collection specimens represent new peripheral records making their distribution range margins more precise. Molecular genetic analysis revealed new distribution extent of particular mitochondrial lineages of the otherwise common species in Zambia, Hipposideros caffer, Nycteris thebaica, and Miniopterus natalensis s.str.

The soft ticks of the genus Reticulinasus Schulze, 1941 (family Argasidae Koch, 1844) are ectoparasites of various bat species of the Afrotropic, Australasian, and Oriental regions. Reticulinasus salahi (Hoogstraal, 1953) is the only representative of the genus that occurs in the western part of the Palaearctic. This unusual distribution reflects the home range of its primary host, Rousettus aegyptiacus (Geoffroy, 1810) from the family Pteropodidae. However, the complete summary of available records and a review of the host species, including re-determination of the originally reported hosts and new records, prove that this parasite occurs also in areas exceeding the distribution range of R. aegyptiacus. Besides the primary host, the occurrence was confirmed also on bats of the families Vespertilionidae and Emballonuridae, Otonycteris hemprichii Peters, 1859 and Taphozous perforatus Geoffroy, 1818. Since O. hemprichii and R. aegyptiacus forage in different habitats and also their natural roosts differ, the parasite transfer between them probably happened in a common roost in anthropogenous conditions. On the other hand, in T. perforatus the transfer from the primary host species could be expected in a common underground roost either in natural or artificial conditions. Some of the tick specimens collected from R. aegyptiacus between July 2010 and March 2012 in Jordan and Oman, were tested for pathogen presence. The MHV-68 virus and the bacteria Borellia burgdorferii s.l. were found in the ticks from both countries. In the ticks from Jordan, the presence of Rickettsia slovaca-like was confirmed, and Candidatus Ehrlichia shimanensis in the larva from Oman. The anthropogenous occurrence of R. salahi combined with the existence of its pathogens represents a potential health issue for human visitors of the bat roosts within the distribution range of R. aegyptiacus.

In 2016–2018, we carried out bat acoustic surveys in the northern part of the island of Cyprus and used two types of methods: stationary recordings (24 stations, 47:45 hours) and mobile acoustic dr...

Myotis nattereri represents a species complex that recently underwent taxonomic changes. Based on morphological evidence, two species were regarded to occur in the western Palaearctic; M. nattereri in Europe, Maghreb, Middle East, and Turkmenistan, and M. schaubi limited to Armenia and north-western Iran. Within M. nattereri sensu lato, several cryptic species were recently revealed using the morphological and molecular genetic approaches (M. escalerai, M. zenatius, M. crypticus, M. tschuliensis, M. hoveli), restricting M. nattereri s.str. to the temperate zone of Europe and the Balkans. Our aim was to complement the knowledge of diversity and distribution of the M. nattereri complex in the Middle East with help of molecular genetic (mitochondrial ND1 gene) and morphometric analyses. In this region, four genetic lineages of the complex belonging to two clades and three primarily size-defined morphotypes were confirmed in accordance with the previous studies. This mosaic represents four species, M. nattereri s.str., M. hoveli, M. tschuliensis, and M. schaubi, and all these species were demostrated to occur in allo- or parapatry to each other. Myotis nattereri s.str. was found only in western Anatolia and in the Aegean island of Samos. The occurrence Myotis hoveli was shown in the Levantine range of this species complex (Jordan, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, southern Anatolia) and also in the mountainous areas of eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. The range of Myotis tschuliensis represents a belt stretching from Crimea, via the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and northern Iran, to Turkmenistan. Myotis schaubi was confirmed only in its very restricted range in Iran and Armenia.

Sentiment analysis is currently the most actively researched topic in the field of natural language processing, however, despite it being such a powerful tool, it is not very widely used in the agrarian sector. This research focuses on the discovery and analysis of scientific literature related to Sentiment analysis in agriculture, to provide an overview of how and where Sentiment analysis is used in the agrarian sector and which methods are most commonly used. This article also discusses which applications of Sentiment analysis yield the most benefits and suggests a direction for future research.

The syndrome of ear pinnae absence was recorded in three individuals of the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) among 71 observed (4.2%) in the Etosha National Park, Namibia, during eight visits in 2013–2020. In two cases, the syndrome comprised bilateral absence of the pinna and certain damage of the tail, while in one case, only unilateral lack of the ear pinna was recorded without any damage of the other pinna and tail.

František Palacký (1798–1876), a historian and politician, was one of the most eminent personalities of the Czech society of the 19th century. He died on 26 May 1876 in Prague and on 30 May 1876, in the evening before the burial, the Palacký’s head was dissected and his brain was extracted and preserved as a liquid preparation. Then, it was deposited in the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia (present National Museum) in Prague; currently it is stored in a jar concealed in a wall niche of a column (next to a large statue of Palacký) in the Pantheon hall of the historical building of the National Museum on the Wenceslaus square in Prague. The investigation of the Museum archive brought some documents which elucidate certain parts of the history of the Palacký’s brain preparation, although its whereabouts during other periods still remain hidden. For several years after its extraction, the Palacký’s brain was deposited in the Museum library, and between the years 1878–1899 (most probably in 1892 at the latest), it was handed over to the Department of Zoology of the Museum, where it remained until 1931. Next fate of the brain is uncertain until 1958, when it was installed in the wall niche in the Pantheon hall, where it remains till now (with an interruption in the last five years), but again under the responsibility of the Department of Zoology and Department of Anthropology, respectively.

During several hours of acoustic survey of bats in Borgo Maggiore, San Marino, on 30 August 2020, foraging activity of at least six bat species was recorded. Five of them (Eptesicus serotinus, Hypsugo savii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, P. kuhlii, and Tadarida teniotis) are common and widespread across the Apennine Peninsula and are already known members of the bat fauna of San Marino. The sixth species, Nyctalus noctula, is here reported from this country for the first time and the bat fauna of San Marino increases to 18 species.

A new record of the Midas free-tailed bat, Mops midas (Sundevall, 1843), from Saudi Arabia is presented. This new record is the northernmost occurrence point of this rare bat in Arabia (ca. 160 km NNW of the closest previous site) and also within its entire distribution range.

Education of adults with intellectual disabilities in labor activities can help them to successfully and repeatedly carry out their work tasks and significantly help their self-realization. The problem is that the need for frequent repetition of already learned skills requires the constant presence of a teacher or caregiver since such a worker is not able to work independently. This situation increases the cost of employing people with disabilities. The aim is to find a way to reduce the necessary number of caregivers needed in this kind of activity and enable greater self-sufficiency of workers. The presented research intended to verify whether a web course could be an effective educational tool for people with intellectual disabilities. During the research, a group of ten participants with intellectual disabilities was educated to acquire basic skills in horticulture. The first teaching was realized through practical demonstrations at the workplace in the university production garden by professional gardeners. After these demonstrations skills of all participants were verified and so the basic level for further verification and comparison of knowledge was set. Subsequently, using three approaches of repeating the already learned practical curriculum (verbal repetition, no repetition, and repetition using the web course) and different time intervals, the level of knowledge of each participant was verified. Statistical methods were used to compare the results of different repetition approaches. Research results demonstrated that a web course, with specific content that consists of video or animation, combined with the use of pictograms for confident navigation, can be used by people with intellectual disabilities with good results. At the same time, in addition to practical teaching, this was the second best-rated approach of repeating knowledge. Using a web course, participants achieved similar work results as they did in practical teaching. Keywords: adult education, intellectual disabilities, professional education, web course.

AIM: The impact of Pleistocene climatic oscillations on tropical biomes is associated with changes in the extent of forest cover. Fruit bats have played a role in woodland dynamics via pollination and seed dispersal. We hypothesized that phylogeographic patterns of Rousettus on continental Africa and adjacent islands should show a signature of pluvial‐drought cycles, involving demographic expansions and contractions. LOCATION: Afrotropical, Malagasy and Saharo‐Arabian biogeographic realms. TAXON: Genus Rousettus (Pteropodidae). METHODS: Phylogeographic and population genetic approaches using mitochondrial and microsatellite data were integrated with species distribution modelling of currently suitable habitats and those of the Last Glacial Maximum using climate simulations. RESULTS: Phylogenetic reconstruction yielded an Asian outgroup followed by pectinate branching of the Indian Ocean taxa and Rousettus aegyptiacus. While nuclear microsatellites were homogeneous across the African mainland, two mitochondrial haplogroups were found. Haplogroup I is widespread in regions with extensive tree cover, including tropical rain forests, and has close relationships to isolated lineages in the Middle East and islands in the Gulf of Guinea. Haplogroup II is sister to the rest of the R. aegyptiacus radiation and is found in eastern and southern Africa and the Sudanian savanna in habitats with semi‐open land cover. MAIN CONCLUSION: Palaeodistributional modelling ascertained that the Indian Ocean islands provided more extensive areas of suitable habitat in the past relative to conditions today, suggesting stepping stone connectivity between Asia and Africa during Pleistocene interpluvial sea‐level lowstands. Inverse pluvial‐drought demography was detected in lineages ancestral to recent haplogroups, providing evidence of past forest refugia and complex ecogeographic scenarios of haplogroup origins involving allopatry and parapatry connected with the eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot, and subsequent admixture of nuclear gene pools. The Middle Eastern lineage probably originated during pluvial green Sahara periods, possibly in co‐evolution with ancestors of tree crop species domesticated later during the Neolithic revolution. The keystone role of rousettine bats for forest regeneration and their ability to pioneer dry and distant habitats emphasize their role in conservation biology and restoration ecology.

AIM: Geographical variations in endotherm body size (e.g. Bergmann's rule/James's rule and Allen's rule) have long been tested. However, the patterns and causes of geographical variation in body size within bat species, especially within widespread hibernating species, are little known. Here, we evaluated the possible causes of geographical size variation patterns in the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum), a bat species widely distributed across the Palearctic. LOCATION: Palearctic. METHODS: We collected body size data (body mass and forearm length) from 1,172 adult bats via direct measurements or from the literature. We used high‐resolution environmental data for the sampled sites. We applied multiple linear regressions and an information‐theoretic approach on separate female and male datasets to estimate the support for various hypotheses. RESULTS: Temperature and latitude failed to predict body mass in both females and males. The best model showed that populations with longer forearms in both sexes were associated with higher mean temperatures (in the warmest quarter) and lower mean temperatures (in the coldest quarter). The independent contribution of these temperature parameters to forearm length in both sexes was higher than that of all other variables. MAIN CONCLUSION: The observed relationship between temperature and body mass was not consistent with James's rule, and thus failed to support the heat conservation hypothesis. Our results are consistent with the predictions of Allen's rule and indicated that direct heat dissipation from the wing may be the most likely mechanism underlying geographical variation in forearm length. We suggest that the evaluation of the relative importance of multiple causal mechanisms may improve our understanding of patterns of geographical variation in endotherms.

Populations occupying peripheral areas of a current species range, particularly those located at rearing edges of the distributional ranges, have a high adaptive potential to environmental changes for the species, being of key conservation importance and, simultaneously, are heavily understudied. We provide the first description of the home-range size and foraging habitat preferences of the isolated northern-most population of the Mediterranean horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus euryale) living at the contact zone of the Carpathian Mountains and Pannonian Lowland, located ~300 km north of the core species range. The median size of the Minimum Convex Polygons (MCP) for all individuals throughout the study was 1.8 km2 and was in accordance with data reported for the southern populations from the range-core. The MCP median size varied between the reproductive periods, being the largest (3.3 km2) in the pregnancy period, decreased dramatically (0.8 km2) during the lactation period and then increased again considerably (7.5 km2) in the post-lactation period. The Ecological Niche Modelling revealed the affinity of the bats to forage in a close distance to riverine habitats, but also in villages and forest edges, while they avoided closed forest areas and open habitats. The differences in habitat use in the study area as compared to the core range populations bring an evidence of ecological plasticity of the northern marginal populations of this species and its potential to exploit human-altered habitats, such as village interiors.

International audience; Two mummified bats were found in an ancient salt mine near Chehrabad, NW Iran. One complete and one partial skeletons, both associated with parts of the pelage, were identified as Eptesicus gobiensis, a bat species rare in the Middle East. The comparison of skull and statistical evaluation of craniodental data showed this bat to belong to the identical taxon as the mummified bats previously collected in Qutur Su caves, NW Iran; this part of Iran is thus an area of broader distribution of this bat, the second record reported here confirms its preference for dry upper plateaus. This Iranian population exhibits much similarity with E. gobiensis bobrinskoi living in lowland deserts of Kazakhstan, but it simultaneously shows morphological and ecological differences from the Kazakhstani populations. Therefore, the population of Iran is here tentatively identified as E. g. cf. bobrinskoi. The species rank of E. gobiensis was found to be composed of three morphotypes living in three separate ranges, E. g. gobiensis in mountain plateaus of Central Asia, E. g. bobrinskoi in lowlands of Kazakhstan, and E. g. cf. bobrinskoi in NW Iran. However, the phylogenetic and taxonomic statuses of the Iranian morphotype still remain to be elicudated.

A complete list of bat records available from Northern Cyprus is presented, based on both limited literature and new records, resulting from a recent field survey conducted mainly in 2018. This review is complemented by distribution maps and summaries of the distributional status of particular species. From the northern part of the island of Cyprus, at least 451 records of 21 bat species are available; viz. Rousettus aegyptiacus (26 record localities), Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (19), R. hipposideros (21), R. euryale (5), R. mehelyi (1), R. blasii (12), Myotis blythii (4), M. nattereri (10), M. emarginatus (3), M. capaccinii (1), Eptesicus serotinus (5), E. anatolicus (1), Hypsugo savii (6), Pipistrellus pipistrellus (50), P. pygmaeus (9), P. kuhlii (265), Nyctalus leisleri (1), N. lasiopterus (1), Plecotus kolombatovici (3), Miniopterus schreibersii (4), and Tadarida teniotis (5). The number of records increased elevenfold and 1.5 times more bat species were found compared to the last review published in 2007. Seven bat species (Rhinolophus euryale, Myotis emarginatus, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, P. pygmaeus, Nyctalus leisleri, N. lasiopterus, and Miniopterus schreibersii) are reported from Northern Cyprus for the first time; also, R. euryale is confirmed for the first time from the whole island. With the exception of Nyctalus noctula, for which doubtful records exist only from Southern Cyprus, the complete known bat fauna of the island was documented in Northern Cyprus. Moreover, three bat species, Rhinolopus mehelyi, Myotis capaccinii and Eptesicus anatolicus, were reported only from the northern part of Cyprus, although the record of M. capaccinii is considered as problematic and the occurrence of this species on the island is unlikely. For the first time, a population trend in a bat population is reported in Cyprus; smaller colonies of Rousettus aegyptiacus, even abandonment of roosts, were observed during the recent survey compared to numbers recorded in the mid-2000s.

Bats of four islands of the Dodecanese Archipelago (Astypalea, Kalymnos, Symi, Megisti) were studied for the first time. The bat fauna of these islands comprises eleven species and the faunas of the particular islands are composed of five (on Astypalea) to nine (on Symi) species. Three species of bats, Rhinolophus blasii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus and P. kuhlii, were found in all four islands, two species, Hypsugo savii and Tadarida teniotis in three islands, and Eptesicus anatolicus and Plecotus kolombatovici in two islands. The remaining four species, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Myotis blythii, M. emarginatus, and Miniopterus schreibersii, are known from only one island each.

Purpose The aim of the work is to develop an anticorrosion pigment based on an oxide mixture with lamellar particles. The pigments are prepared from lamellar zinc, zinc oxide and magnetite by calcination. An alkaline earth carbonate is added when embedding a third cation in the lattice of the ferrite that forms the envelope of the lamellar zinc. The properties of the pigments are tested both in the powdered state and when embedded in an epoxy-ester system using different pigment volume concentrations (PVC). Design/methodology/approach The properties of paints containing synthesised oxide mixture-based pigments at various volume concentrations and with the Q factor – Q = PVC/CPVC = 0.65 – were examined (where CPVC is critical pigment volume concentration). A series of isometric ferrite pigments were also synthesised for a comparison. Paints of both types with PVC = 10, 15 and 20 per cent were formulated. Steel panels coated with the paints were subjected to corrosion and mechanical tests. Findings The oxide mixtures with lamellar particles were subjected to particle size analysis and found to make up a broad distribution curve. Electron microscopy photographs confirmed that the oxide mixture pigments contained lamellar particles with a surface layer. A high anticorrosion effect was achieved owing to the combination of different oxide types. Research limitations/implications The properties of the oxide mixtures with lamellar particles are described. Their particle distribution curves can be obtained by particle size analysis methods with a view to obtaining additional information on the status and properties of the pigment particles that may be useful in the development of better paints/coating materials. Practical implications Oxide mixtures with lamellar particles can be used in paints protecting construction steel. Originality/value The composition of the prepared oxide mixture-based pigments is novel. Each oxide acts by its own anticorrosion mechanism and the final beneficial effect is due to their concerted action.

Several house bat specimens superficially resembling the white-bellied house bat Scotophilus leucogaster (Cretzschmar, 1830), were recently captured in southwestern Ethiopia and southern South Sudan. These S . cf. leucogaster differed from typical S. leucogaster by their slightly smaller size and ventral coloration, conforming instead with the original description of S . altilis Allen, 1914. Scotophilus altilis is an overlooked taxon known from the Blue Nile region in Sudan that is currently considered a junior synonym of S . leucogaster . Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene ( cytb ) sequences revealed S . cf. leucogaster as a sister clade to S . leucogaster with a genetic distance of ca. 10%. Comparative specimens of questionable S . nigritellus de Winton, 1899 from northwestern Ethiopia and a wing biopsy sample of another S . cf. leucogaster from western Kenya also fell within this clade. Sequence data from two nuclear markers ( zfy and fgb7 ) corroborated the distinction of S . cf. leucogaster from S . leucogaster . Likewise, morphometric analysis of cranial data largely supported this distinction, as well as taxonomic affiliation with S . altilis based on comparison with the only available paratype specimen. The position of this paratype specimen within the new Scotophilus clade, inferred from analysis of a short fragment of cytb , confirmed its taxonomic identity. Based on the presented evidence, the overlooked East African taxon S. altilis should be resurrected as a full species within the genus Scotophilus .