This is the largest family of bats, with at least 17 genera recorded from Africa, including the newly described Parahypsugo (Hutterer et al. 2019), of which 34 species in 11 genera occur in southern Africa. Of the remaining African vesper genera not recorded in southern Africa, Barbastella and Nyctalus are restricted to Mediterranean North Africa; Plecotus occurs there, as well as in Ethiopia, while Otonycteris occurs widely in North Africa. The fourth genus is excluded from this book because it comprises a highly dubious record of Phoniscus from ‘South Africa, eastern coast’ – this Asian genus is known in Africa from only two specimens, but there is doubt whether these were collected from the continent (Happold 2013d). Since the records come from a well-collected region of the continent, we suspect that this represents an example of mislabelled geographic location and hence we do not include it on our list. Three of the four genera not found in southern Africa are European species that extend only marginally into Africa north of the Sahara (Simmons 2005).

Members of the Vespertilionidae, sometimes called ‘evening bats’ (owing to their time of activity), are characterised by the absence of noseleafs, a long tail fully enclosed within the tail membrane (Figure 263), and a conspicuous tragus of variable shape and size (Figure 265). With the Miniopteridae and Cistugidae elevated to full family status, there are now three subfamilies within the southern African vespertilionids: Vespertilioninae, Myotinae, and Kerivoulinae (Amador et al. 2018). Based on a molecular phylogeny of nine mitochondrial and nuclear genes, Amador et al. (2018) recognise nine tribes within Vespertilioninae (four of which occur in southern Africa).

The Myotinae includes one African genus, Myotis, which is identified by its soft orange fur and long, narrow tragus.

The Kerivoulinae comprises one genus, Kerivoula, which is identified by its woolly fur and funnel-shaped ears that have a long, narrow tragus (Figure 264). The two widespread southern African species possess a fringe of hair on the outer margin of the tail membrane, a feature that is unique among vespertilionids of this region; this fringe of hair is absent in the remaining African species, including K. cf. phalaena captured recently from Mount Mabu (Monadjem et al. 2010a). These are small, inconspicuous bats that have been poorly collected; hence, little is known about the details of their biology (Hill and Smith 1984).