the ashy-gray bat is one of 126 new species found in the greater mekong region during 2011. there were two other tube-nosed bats found in southeast asia in 2011: beelzebub's tube-nosed bat ("murina beelzebub") and walston's tube-nosed bat ("murina walstoni"). all three species are small for bats and "m. cineracea" is small for a "murina" bat. these three new tube-nosed bats were discovered by a team from the hungarian natural history museum (hnhm) and fauna and flora international (ffi). all three of these bats live in tropical forests, making them endangered by deforestation.