Multilocus phylogeny of a cryptic radiation of Afrotropical long‐fingered bats (Chiroptera, Miniopteridae)

Abstract

The Old World bat family Miniopteridae comprises only the genus Miniopterus, which includes 20 currently recognized species from the Afrotropical realm and 15 species from Eurasia and Australasia. Since 2003, the number of recognized Miniopterus species has grown from 19 to 35, with most newly described species endemic to Madagascar and the Comoros Archipelago. We investigated genetic variation, phylogenetic relationships and clade membership in Miniopterus focusing on Afrotropical taxa. We generated mitochondrial cytochrome‐b (cyt‐b) and nuclear intron data (five genes) from 352 vouchered individuals collected at 78 georeferenced localities. Including 99 additional mitochondrial sequences from GenBank, we analysed a total of 25 recognized species. Mitochondrial genetic distances among cyt‐b‐supported clades averaged 9.3%, representing as many as five undescribed species. Multilocus coalescent delimitation strongly supported the genetic isolation of eight of nine tested unnamed clades. A large number of sampled clades in sub‐Saharan Africa are distributed wholly or partly in East Africa (nine of 13 clades), suggesting that Miniopterus diversity has been grossly underestimated. Although 25 of 27 cyt‐b and 23 of 25 nuclear gene tree lineages from the Afrotropics were strongly supported as monophyletic, a majority of deep nodes were poorly resolved in phylogenetic analyses. Long terminal branches subtending short backbone internodes in the phylogenetic analyses suggest a rapid radiation model of diversification. This hypothesis needs to be tested using more phylogenetically informative data.

Evolutionary relationships and population genetics of the Afrotropical leaf-nosed bats (Chiroptera, Hipposideridae)

“…Clades of Hipposideros are separated by cyt-b p-distances averaging 9.7% (2.5-16.1%), whereas Doryrhina clades average p-distances of 4.8% (3.0-5.7%) and Macronycteris clades 2.7% (2.6-2.9%). Distance values for these gen-era tend to fall at the lower end of values obtained with similar sampling intensity for species-ranked clades in other Afrotropical bat genera: 2.5% for Otomops (Patterson et al 2018), 9.3% for Miniopterus (Demos et al 2020), 10% for Scotophilus and Rhinolophus (Demos et al 2018(Demos et al , 2019a, 13.5% for Myotis , and 17% for Nycteris (Demos et al 2019b). Fewer cyt-b substitutions on average for these hipposiderids does not limit support for individual clades, and because distances do not approach those characteristic of substitutional saturation, the cyt-b tree recovers much of the deeper phylogenetic structure evident with nuclear intron sequences (compare Figs 2, 5).…”

DNA Barcoding and Morphological Analyses Reveal a Cryptic Species of Miniopterus from India and Sri Lanka

“…For instance, these genetic distances considerably exceed mitochondrial DNA divergence between M. wilsoni and M. minor (4.1-5.7%) in Monadjem et al (2020) or the 3.3% divergence between M. ambohitrensis and M. aelleni in Goodman et al (2015). Strikingly, the various Malagasy species of Miniopterus studied by Goodman and collaborators were reexamined using five nuclear intron sequences, and in each case their distinction as valid species was maintained (Demos et al, 2020). Likewise, the two cryptic species M. schreibersii and M. maghrebensis differed minimally at mitochondrial genes (1.2%), yet according to nuclear markers showed no evidence of interbreeding in areas of sympatry (Puech maille et al, 2014).…”

“…As recently as 2005, the genus was thought to contain 19 species distributed over much of the Eastern Hemisphere (Simmons, 2005). However, recent descriptions has more than doubled that number (Ibáñez and Juste, 2019;Monadjem et al, 2019Monadjem et al, , 2020, and additional putative species await confirmation (Demos et al, 2020). Besides the genus Murina (which increased from 17 to 40 species since 2005 - Burgin et al, 2020), no other speciose bat genus has seen such a proportionate increase in numbers of species over this period, underscoring the cryptic nature of speciation in the genus Miniopterus (Goodman et al, 2009a(Goodman et al, , 2009b.…”

“…Our study highlights the importance of using both genetic and morphometric analyses in taxonomic studies on South Asian bats. 2015; Furman et al, 2010;Puechmaille et al, 2014;Monadjem et al, 2019Monadjem et al, , 2020Demos et al, 2020). However, less attention has been paid to Asian forms, and for a long time, many larger Miniopterus from this continent were recognized as various subspecies of M. schreibersii (Simmons, 2005).…”

Multiple dimensions of biodiversity in paleotropical hotspots reveal comparable bat diversity

“…However, he concluded, based on data available at the time, that Afrotropical bat faunas were depauperate relative to those in Indo‐Malaya. This perspective was something of a dogma until more recent surveys pointed to the cryptic diversity within species complexes (Demos et al, 2020; Demos, Webala, Goodman, et al, 2019; Demos, Webala, Kerbis Peterhans, et al, 2019; Hassanin et al, 2015; Hassanin et al, 2018; Monadjem, Richards, Taylor, & Stoffberg, 2013; Monadjem et al, 2019; Patterson et al, 2020; Vallo et al, 2008) and the importance of multi‐faceted survey methods in inventorying Paleotropical bat faunas (Fahr & Kalko, 2011; Kingston et al, 2003).…”