A preliminary revision of the genusPlecotus(Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) based on genetic and morphological results

Abstract

Haring, E. (2006). A preliminary revision of the genus Plecotus (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) based on genetic and morphological results.-Zoologica Scripta , 35 , 187-230. The phylogenetic relationships within the genus Plecotus were assessed using molecular as well as morphological methods. With only three species missing, our study is based on an almost comprehensive taxonomic sampling. The genetic analysis comprised 151 individuals from throughout the range. Sequences of two mitochondrial sections, parts of the 16S rRNA gene (16S) and of the control region (CR) were analysed. The morphological analysis of cranial and external characters comprised 697 individuals, including 10 holotypes and one lectotype. Data from 15 craniometric characters of 442 specimens were used in the multivariate analyses. The molecular data identified nine primary clades representing 11 species, 10 of which could be assigned to described taxa, whereas one was described as a new species, Plecotus strelkovi Spitzenberger sp. nov. The tree based on 16S revealed two major lineages, one consisting of only one primary clade restricted to the Mediterranean, the other consisting of eight primary clades representing Eurasian taxa. The morphological analysis revealed five additional species, two of them not described. Together with the recently described P. taivanus , P. sardus and P. balensis , which were not included in our analysis, the genus Plecotus comprises at least 19 more or less cryptic species. Phylogenetic and phenetic analyses resulted in similar but not completely concordant arrangements of the species. The proposed classification relies mainly on the tree based on 16S sequences. The current distribution indicates that 16 species can be linked to arboreal refugia, three to eremial refugia. We assume that speciation within the gleaning, rather slow flying long-eared bats is due to a multitude of disruption and isolation processes within a formerly continuous range of the broad-leaved Arcto-Tertiary forest in which Plecotus probably originated. An exact calibrated molecular dating of the splits is not possible. The Early Oligocene age of the presumed ancestor of the Plecotini and a correlation of the molecular diversifications with palaeogeographic reconstructions suggest that the divergence of the two major lineages may have occurred already during the Middle Miocene, 14.5 Mya.

Helminths of small mammals (Erinaceomorpha, Soricomorpha, Chiroptera, Rodentia, and Lagomorpha) of Mongolia

“…-Tinnin et al 2002;Simmons 2005 Literature. -Desportes 1946;Biocca and chabaud 1951;Spassky, Ryjhikov and Sudarikov 1952;coil and Kuntz 1958;Soltys 1959;andreiko and Skvortsov 1968;Zdzitowiecki 1969;Skvortsov 1970;Zdzitowoecki 1970a;Tokobaev 1976;Sawada 1980;Khotenovskii 1985;Sawada 1990;Tkach et al 2000;Shimalov et al 2002;Tinnin et al 2002;Spitzberger et al 2006;Dolch et al 2007;Tinnin et al 2008;Batsaikhan et al 2010.…”

“…In Mongolia they are known from the southern Khangay and Mongolian altai across the south of the country. Comments.-Similarly to P. auritus, Spitzberger et al (2006) Literature. -Yanchev and Stoikova 1973;Murai 1976;Shimalov et al 2002;Tinnin et al 2002;Simmons 2005;Spitzberger et al 2006;Dolch et al 2007;Batsaikhan et al 2010.…”

The first record of alpine long-eared bat Plecotus macrobullaris in Serbia

“…The members of the genus Plecotus (long-eared bats) are widely distributed in the Palearctic (Spitzenberger et al, 2006), and six European species have been confirmed to date. Phylogenetic analyses revealed the existence of two major lineages of long-eared bats in Europe: the 'auritus group' (P. auritus, P macrobullaris, and P. sardus), and the 'austriacus group' (P. austriacus, P. kolombatovici, and P. teneriffae) (Mucedda et al, 2003;Juste et al, 2004).…”

“…It is present in the Pyrenees (Garin et al, 2003;Alberdi et al, 2013), the Alpine ridge Spitzenberger et al, 2002;Trizio et al, 2005;Presetnik et al, 2009), the Dinarides (Pavlinić and Tvrtković, 2004;Tvrtković et al, 2005;Sachanowicz and Ciechanowski, 2006;Karapandža et al, 2014;Presetnik et al, 2014), the Pindos Mountains , Crete (Juste et al, 2004), Anatolia (Karataş and Sözen, 2006), and mountainous regions in the Middle East and the Caucasus (Benda et al, 2006;Spitzenberger et al, 2006;Kiefer, 2008), showing an alpine distribution pattern and being the most common bat species in the alpine area in Europe (Alberdi et al, 2013).…”

“…01/14). Seventeen measurements of the skull (Figure 3) were taken following Spitzenberger et al (2006): Gsl -greatest skull length, Ccl -condylocanine length, Cbl -condylobasal length, Bh -height of braincase, Bb -breadth of braincase, Mb -mastoid breadth, Zb -zygomatic breadth, Iob -breadth of interorbital constriction, C-C -anterior palatal breadth, M 3 -M 3 -maxillary breadth, I 1 -M 3 -length of upper tooth row from first incisor to third molar, C-M 3 -length of upper tooth row from canine to third molar, M -length of mandible from symphysis to condylar process, I 1 -M 3 -length of lower tooth row from first incisor to third molar, C-M 3 -length of lower tooth row from canine to third molar, Corh -height of coronoid process, Dbt -diameter of tympanic bulla. These measurements were taken from images (digital images were obtained using a Nikon SMZ800 stereomicroscope), and linear distances between the landmark pairs were calculated using the TmorphGen6 program, Integrated Morphometrics Program (IMP) series (Sheets, 2000).…”