 Tomes assigned the specific epithet "australis" when he first regarded the population as endemic to Australia, but realised the series of specimens he assembled for his revision included those collected in Timor and presumed they also occurred at other islands of the regions.While recognising this as a misnomer, Tomes noted he had already applied this name in museum collections prior to publication and conserved his first choice to avoid any subsequent confusion.The author also noted a specimen from the Leyden Museum in his monograph, previously exhibited at that institution with the name "Vespertilio tibialis" but did not appear in a formal description.