Barbastella

Barbastella is a genus of vespertilionid bats. There are seven extant species in this genus and one only known from fossil remains. It comes from the Latin "Barba" (meaning "beard") and "Stella" (meaning "star"), and refers to the clusters of stiff hairs that some bats of this genus have around their nostrils, which may resemble a beard or, perhaps, the arrangement of the rays of a star. Furthermore, the term "barbastello" is common for bats in northeastern Italy, (especially Ferrara and Bologna). This regional use of Italian could have influenced or been related to the choice of the scientific name, and interestingly, the Italian term "barbastello" is also believed to have originated from the Latin "vespertilio" the classical term for bat.