The taxonomic status of
Eptesicus isabellinus has been revised several times since its initial description. This species was initially
described in 1840 by Dutch zoologist
Coenraad Jacob Temminck. He placed it in the genus
Vespertilio, naming it
Vespertilio isabellinus. In 1887, French zoologist
Fernand Lataste intimated that he believed that the meridional serotine was a subspecies of the
serotine bat,
Eptesicus serotinus, per Harrison 1963. In 1963,
David Harrison determined that
morphologically,
Eptesicus isabellinus was indistinguishable from
Eptesicus serotinus, and suggested that its name should be
Eptesicus serotinus isabellinus to recognize it as a subspecies of the latter. They recommended that
Eptesicus serotinus isabellinus should be elevated to a species, suggesting a reversion to the name
Eptesicus isabellinus if the population of southern
Iberia represented the same species as the population of northern Africa (formerly
Eptesicus serotinus boscai), which it did. Its
species name isabellinus is a
Neo-Latin rendering of
isabelline, which means pale yellow in color. In his initial description of the species, Temmick described its fur color as "a beautiful shade of isabella." ==Description==