Genetically and geographically isolated lineages of a tropical bat (Chiroptera: Molossidae) show demographic stability over the late Pleistocene

Abstract

The newly described molossid bat, Chaerephon atsinanana Goodman et al., 2010, endemic to eastern Madagascar, shows notably high levels of phylogeographic and genetic structure compared with allopatric Chaerephon leucogaster Grandidier, 1869 from western Madagascar. Such highly significant structuring of haplotypes among altitudinally and latitudinally stratified population groups is contrary to the expected panmixia in strong flying bats. The null model of concordance in historical demographic patterns across these two Chaerephon species was not supported. Mismatch and Bayesian skyline analyses indicated ancient stable C. atsinanana populations of constant size during the last two major Pleistocene glacial periods, making retreat into and expansion from glacial refugia an unlikely explanation for such high levels of structure, in accordance with expectations for tropical bats. Analyses were consistent with post‐refugial population expansion in the less diverse and structured C. leucogaster during the end of the last Pleistocene glacial period. We hypothesise that the pronounced genetic structuring in C. atsinanana may result from female philopatry. Furthermore, differing demographic histories of the two species may have been shaped by differing climate or habitat preferences, consistent with evidence from MaxEnt ecological niche modelling, which shows differences in variables influencing the current predicted distributions. Fossil Quaternary pollen deposits further indicate greater stability in past climatic patterns in eastern versus western Madagascar. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 106, 18–40.

Stable Pleistocene-era populations ofChaerephon pumilus(Chiroptera: Molossidae) in southeastern Africa do not use different echolocation calls

“…However many of the haplotypes were separated by more than one mutational step, and could not easily be inferred as ancestors or descendants of other haplotypes. A similarly-structured haplotype network has been reported for C. atsinanana from eastern Madagascar (Lamb et al 2012), consistent with the existence of ancient stable populations of this Chaerephon species. These authors hypothesised that the highly structured populations of C. atsinanana are maintained by female philopatry, a possible explanation for the similar structuring in C. pumilus s.l.…”

Rapid assessment of bat diversity in the Taita Hills Afromontane cloud forests, southeastern Kenya

“…The cytochrome b gene (Cyt-b) was sequenced for species identification, one of the most commonly used (mitochondrial) molecular marker in bat fauna (Hamilton et al 2015). The primers employed were L15146 (5'-CATGAGGACAAATATCATTCTGAG-3') and H15915 (5'-TCTCCATTTCTGGTTTACAAG AC-3') (Irwin et al 1991), and polymerase chain reactions were done using protocols described by Lamb et al (2012). The sequences were compared with those available in GenBank.…”

Wing Loading Correlates Negatively with Genetic Structuring of Eight Afro-Malagasy Bat Species (Molossidae)

“…No new sequences were generated in this study but we obtained sequences from previous studies all conducted in the laboratory of JML (Ratrimomana rivo et al, 2007(Ratrimomana rivo et al, , 2008(Ratrimomana rivo et al, , 2009a(Ratrimomana rivo et al, , 2009bLamb et al, 2008Lamb et al, , 2012Taylor et al, 2009;Good man et al, 2010; Genbank numbers contained in abovementioned papers). Table 1 summarizes the number of individuals, haplotypes and populations sampled for each of eight Afro-Malagasy species, of which one (Otomops martiensseni) contained two divergent lineages, which were analysed separately for estimating molecular diversity parameters (wing shape data were only available for the southern and western African lineage).…”

“…The extended right wing of each bat (after Norberg and Rayner, 1987) Ratrimomanarivo et al, 2007Ratrimomanarivo et al, , 2008Ratrimomanarivo et al, , 2009aRatrimomanarivo et al, , 2009bLamb et al, 2008Lamb et al, , 2012Taylor et al, 2009;Goodman et al, 2010) York, USA) and for the Malagasy taxa with a Nikon Coolpix 5600 (Nikon Inc., Melville, New York, USA) ensuring that the camera was positioned at 90° above the wing. After the wing images were calibrated, wingspan (b, to nearest 0.1 mm) and wing area (S, including body area without the head, and the area of the uropatagium to the nearest 0.1 mm 2 ), were measured using SigmaScan Pro 5 software (version 5.0.0, SPSS Inc., Aspire Software International, Leesburg, USA).…”

“…Recent studies on the phylogeography of molossid bats occurring on islands in the western Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Comoros, Pemba) and southern Africa have revealed radically different genetic patterns in species varying in body size from a forearm length of 36 mm in Chaerephon leucogaster to 72 mm in Otomops martiensseni (Ratrimomanarivo et al, 2007(Ratrimomanarivo et al, , 2008(Ratrimomanarivo et al, , 2009a(Ratrimomanarivo et al, , 2009bLamb et al, 2008Lamb et al, , 2012Taylor et al, 2009;Goodman et al, 2010; Tables 1 and 2). Afro-Malagasy molossids share several key morphological and life history traits, such as a wing design basically adapted for fast-flying aerial feeding, tendency for colonial living, crevice or cave roosting behavior, and adaptation to synanthropic roosting (Peterson et al, 1995;Taylor, 2000;Monadjem et al, 2010;Goodman, 2011).…”