[1] Andreas Kiefer and Michael Veith described a new taxon, Plecotus alpinus, in the 2001 volume of the journal Myotis, but the name was made available in 2002 only.

However, in 2003, it was determined that both P. alpinus and P. microdontus were synonyms of the previous taxon described Kuzyakin in 1965, which was then raised to species status as Plecotus macrobullaris.

[1] It mostly inhabits steep mountainous terrain, up to a maximum of 2,800 metres (9,200 ft)[6] but is known to reach sea level in some localities.

[6] Tha bat's diet is mainly based on moths, which are captured in open areas such as grasslands and alpine meadows.

[9] Its echolocation calls are similar to those of other long-eared bats, consisting of very faint multiharmonic signals, with the first harmonic sweeping down from 46 to 23 kHz and lasting up to 7 milliseconds.