“…In the only previous study to use molecular techniques to assess the taxonomic status of bats in Sri Lanka, Mapatuna et al (2002) confirmed the existence of two distinct species of Cynopterus in the country. The use of DNA barcoding and detailed morphological and morphometric analysis has accelerated the rate of species discovery in East and Southeast Asia (Soisook et al, 2015(Soisook et al, , 2016(Soisook et al, , 2017Kuo et al, 2017;Ruedi et al, 2017;Tu et al, 2018;Yu et al, 2020) and to a lesser extent in South Asia (Ruedi et al, 2012b;Saikia et al, 2017;Srinivasulu et al, 2018Srinivasulu et al, , 2019Thong et al, 2018;Chakravarty et al, 2020). Genetic studies on Indian and Sri Lankan bats is yet to catch up when compared to those in neighboring regions (Saikia, 2018).…”