SEABCRU » Hipposideridae

Phylogeography of the Great Himalayan Leaf-nosed bat Hipposideros armiger

Pipat Soisook — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 17:31:21 +0000

Hipposideros armiger (Photo T. Kingston)

An international team of scientist, including one of the SEABCRU committee members Dr Pipat Soisook, published results of the study of the population history of Hipposideros armiger, a fairly common cave-dwelling Leaf-nosed bat in the Oriental region, in the latest issue of Journal of Biogeography. The authors examined the evolutionary history of this species using two mtDNA regions and seven nuclear microsatellite loci of specimens from South China, mainland Southeast Asia and the South Himalayas. The study found that H. armiger comprises two distinct mtDNA clades with seven subclades. The results revealed there were two population expansion events at about 0.62 Ma and about 0.25 Ma. The authors suggested that divergence and population expansion of H. armiger was related to Pleistocene climatic changes.

Find out more: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.12163/abstract

Reference: Lin, A.-Q., G. Csorba, L.-F.Li, T.-L.Jiang, G.-J.Lu, V. D. Thong, P. Soisook, K.-P.Sun, and J. Feng. 2014. Phylogeography of Hipposideros armiger (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) in the Oriental Region: the contribution of multiple Pleistocene glacial refugia and intrinsic factors to contemporary population genetic structure. Journal of Biogeography, 41: 317–327.

Resolving the mystery of Paracoelops megalotis

Vu Din Thong — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:09:48 +0000

From Vin Dinh Thong

Paracoelops megalotis was only known from the original description of the single holotype. Over the past decades, the species was treated as a monotypic genus endemic to Vietnam, and received much attention from bat specialists worldwide. Particularly, it had appeared as a mammal mystery. In fact, Paracoelops and P. megalotis were named from a misclassification of an incomplete specimen of Pomona Leaf-nosed Bat (Hipposideros pomona). Vu Dinh Thong from Vietnam together with his colleagues from England, France, Germany and Ireland have resolved this mystery in a paper recently published in the journal Zootaxa.

Vu Dinh Thong, Christian Dietz, Annette Denzinger, Paul J.J. Bates, Sebastien J. Puechmaille, Cecile Callou, and Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler. 2012. Resolving a mammal mystery: the identity of Paracoelops megalotis (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae). Zootaxa 3505: 75–85.

For a copy of the paper, please contact the corresponding author Vu Dinh Thong: thong(at)iebr.ac.vn

New Hipposideros from Vietnam

Faisal Ali Anwarali Khan — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:27:35 +0000

Congratulations to Vu Dinh and his co-authors on the description of new Hipposideros species from Vietnam. This new cryptic species from the armiger-species group, H. griffini is similar to H. armiger in its external characteristics but appears to have higher echolocation frequencies (76.6 to 79.2 kHz) compared to those of H. armiger (64.7–68.8 kHz). Hipposideros griffini also can be generally distinguished based on its smaller body size, craniodental, skull and teeth compared to H. armiger. Presently, H. griffini is only known from two disjunct localities in Vietnam: Cat Ba National Park, Cat Hai District, and Chu Mom Ray National Park, Kon Tum Province. The former is situated on an offshore island in northern Vietnam and the latter on the mainland Vietnam. Both, H. armiger and H. griffini can be found in sympatry in Vietnam. This further highlights the importance of incorporating multiple datasets such as morphology, echolocation and genetics in discovering cryptic bat species in Southeast Asia.

A new species of Hipposideros (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) from Vietnam
Author(s): Vu Dinh Thong, Sebastien J. Puechmaille, Annette Denzinger, Christian Dietz, Gabor Csorba,
Paul J. J. Bates, Emma C. Teeling, and Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler
Journal of Mammalogy, 93(1):1-11. 2012.
Contact: thong@iebr.ac.vn for reprints

New molecular phylogeny for SE Asian hipposiderids

Tigga Kingston — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:26:41 +0000

As many of us have found, the Hipposideridae can be a complicated, if not irritating family to work with, and the molecular phylogeny from Susan Murray and colleagues just published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution reveals the extent of paraphyly and polyphyly within many currently recognized Hipposideros species. Analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data did however provide strong support for monophyly of Hipposideros and the four major clades recovered were generally concordant with Hill’s classification scheme of species groups.

Susan W. Murray, Polly Campbell, Tigga Kingston, Akbar Zubaid, Charles M. Francis, Thomas H. Kunz (2012). Molecular phylogeny of hipposiderid bats from Southeast Asia and evidence of cryptic diversity. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 62: 597-611

For a pdf of the article email tigga(dot)kingston(at)ttu(dot)edu

Seven species added to Cambodia’s country list

Tigga Kingston — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:23:38 +0000

The Cambodian bat fauna is one of the least well-known in the region, as is evidenced by the addition of seven new species to the country’s list in a recent publication from Ith Saveng and colleagues. The authors reviewed specimens collected from around the country over the last 11 years and confirmed the presence of Rhinolophus yunanensis, Hipposideros diadema, Saccolaimus saccolaimus, Myotis ater, M. horsfieldii, Murina cyclotis and Kerivoula picta, bringing the country’s total to 60 species. There remains much to do however, and the authors anticipate addition discoveries as survey effort expands and intensifies.

Ith Saveng, Gabor Csorba, Paul J J Bates & Neil M Furey (2011). Confirmation of seven bat species for Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2: 93-103.

Ith et al. 2011. Seven new bats for Cambodia

Recent taxonomy papers on Southeast Asian bats

Paul Bates — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:57:50 +0000

It is great to report on further new papers relating to the taxonomy of SE Asian bats. Congratulations to Noor Haliza Hasan and Mohd Tajuddin Abdullah on their paper on woolly bats (Kerivoula) from Malaysia. This is a particularly ‘awkward’ group and they have done us all a great service in casting new light on its taxonomy.

Noor Haliza Hasan & Mohd Tajuddin Abdullah (2011). A morphological analysis of Malaysian Kerivoula (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae). Mammal Study 36: 87-97.

Please Contact Noor Haliza Hasan for a copy nhalizahasan@gmail.com

Meanwhile, Bounsavane Douangboubpha from Lao PDR has recently published two papers on another ‘awkward’ group the leaf-nosed bats. In the first, he tackled the taxonomiy of the Hipposideros bicolor/H. pomona group in Thailand. Subsequently, he worked on the Hipposideros ater group. Outcomes included recognising the Nicobar Island population as a distinct species and describing a new species from Myanmar, H. einnaythu, which for those of you that are not so familiar with Myanmar language means the bat ‘that dwells in the home’ – reflecting its roosting preference.

Bounsavane Douangboubpha, Sara Bumrungsri, Pipat Soisook, Chutamas Satasook, Nikky M. Thomas & Paul JJ Bates (2010). A taxonomic review of the Hipposideros bicolor species complex and H. pomona (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) in Thailand. Acta Chiropterologica 12: 415-438.

Bounsavane Douangboubpha, Sara Bumrungsri, Chutamas Satasook, Pipat Soisook, Si Si Hla Bu, Bandana Aul, David L Harrison, Malcom J Pearch, Nikky M. Thomas & Paul JJ Bates (2011). A new species of small Hipposideros (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) from Myanamar and a revaluation of the taxon H. nicobarulae Miller, 1902 from the Nicobar Islands. Acta Chiropterologica 13: 67-78.

Please email bounsavanhd@yahoo.com or pjjbates2@hotmail.com for copies

Alice Hughes has just published an excellent paper on the zoogeography of bats in the Thai-Malay peninsular with particular reference to the Isthmus of Kra. Hot of the press, this is the second of a series of papers that Alice has prepared on the region following her PhD study focusing on computer mapping and predictive studies of bat distributions in SE Asia.

Alice C Hughes, Chutamas Satasook, Paul JJ bates, Sara Bumrungsri & Gareth Jones (2011). Explaining the cuases of the zooegeographic transition around the Isthmus of Kra: using bats as a case study. Journal of Biogeography doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02568.x

The paper is available on line here, but you can also contact Alice Hughes ah3881@bristol.ac.uk or Gareth Jones Gareth.Jones@bristol.ac.uk for a copy.