AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 3963 
SYSTEMATICS 
Family Vespertilionidae Gray, 1821 
Subfamily Myotinae Tate 1942 
Genus Myotis Kaup, 1829 
Subgenus Chrysopteron Jentink, 1910 
Myotis nimbaensis, new species 
Nimba Myotis 
Figures 3-8 
Ho.totype: AMNH 2795839, an adult male captured and released on 26 January 2018 at Kaiser 
Adit 3 and then collected on 2 February 2018 by Jon Flanders and Eric Moise Bakwo Fils at Kaiser 
Adit 1 (fig. 2), Nimba Mountains, Guinea (N07,66499, W008.37223), field number BCIGU133. The 
specimen was preserved whole in formalin and stored in ethanol, and the skull was subsequently 
extracted and cleaned. A 3 mm wing biopsy tissue sample was collected and stored in desiccant 
before the DNA was extracted at CIBIO-InBIO, University of Porto, Portugal. 
PARATYPE: AMNH 279590, an adult female collected at the same time and place as the 
holotype, field number BCIGU132. Like the holotype, the paratype was preserved in formalin 
and stored in ethanol after a 3 mm wing biopsy tissue sample was collected and stored in desic- 
cant before the DNA was extracted. The skull was subsequently extracted and cleaned. 
OTHER RECORDS: In addition to the captures of the holotype and paratype, we recorded 
echolocation calls from the male holotype on 26 January 2018. Once its distinctive call param- 
eters were identified, we searched for its echolocation call signature in sound files recorded at 
the entrances of 10 mine adits between 2018-2019, including the type locality, within the 
Nimba Mountains’ Mining Concession in Guinea (fig. 1), using Song Meter SM4BAT acoustic 
detectors (Wildlife Acoustics). Echolocation calls closely matching those recorded from the 
release calls of the holotype were detected at the entrances of a total of five mine adits (fig. 1) 
with seasonal variation between sites and the highest activity rates recorded at the type locality. 
While the Nimba Mountains support an exceptionally diverse bat fauna, this is the first Myotis 
species observed using the adits and only the second Myotis species to be recorded across the 
whole mountain range (Monadjem et al., 2016). Details of call frequency and structure, as well 
as comparisons with calls of congeneric species, are provided below in the section entitled 
Echolocation Calls. 
DISTRIBUTION: Known only from the type locality and vicinity in the Guinean Nimba 
Mountains. 
EtyMo.ocy: Myotis nimbaensis (“from Nimba’) is named in recognition of the mountain 
range in which it was discovered. As an epithet referring to a place, nimbaensis is spelled the 
same way whether applied in combination with either a masculine or a feminine genus name. 
Woodman (1993) argued that Myotis should be considered feminine in gender, but Pritchard 
